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CDEKRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Fragments of Spiritual 
Knowledge 

Pertaining to the Spiritual World 



Fragments of Spiritual Knowledge, Clairvoyantly 

and clairaudiently received and 

Transplanted to Paper 

BY ^ .V ' 

BENJAMIN F! WOODCOX 

author of 

"Thoughts About Love and Other Thoughts" 

"In Cupid's Chains and Other Poems" 

"Spiritual Evolution" 



WOODCOX & FANNER 

publishers 

Battle Creek, Mich. 



& 






Copyright, 1923, by 

Benjamin Franklin Woodcox 

All Rights Reserved 



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-2*23 



CU700225 



The invisible will become visible to him who will 
concentrate his whole life and desire upon seeing that 
zvhich to others must remain unseen and unseeable. It 
is in the spirit of one who would see the invisible that I 
have, for years, been keeping my mind and life concen- 
trated upon the spiritual world, and have sought to 
pierce through the veil of the unseen, to see that which 
to most of us must remain unseen. Little by little I have 
penetrated this inner world of mystery, and have grasped 
fact after fact, truth after truth. Still this invisible 
world is gradually opening up before me, and I am 
able to see, feel and grasp more and more of that which 
to others is invisible, intangible, inaudible and imper- 
ceptible. 

The Author. 



All communications that reach us from the other 
side of life are fragmentary } and need to be studied in 
connection with that which we have formerly received, 
and that which we are yet to receive. 



I would have my reader understand that I am sin- 
cerely trying, in this book, to convey to him some idea 
of that which lies beyond the visible and within the 
world of the unseen living. 

The Author. 



Fragments of Spiritual Knowledge 

1. In the mineral kingdom, the struggle for life, 
and the struggle of life, begin, and guided by an in- 
telligence that is mathematically accurate in all its ef- 
forts, this life develops, and spreads, and passes through 
each of the other kingdoms of nature, and on through 
the more rarefied kingdoms which are invisible to man. 

While life originates in the mineral kingdom, and 
develops and spreads through all the other kingdoms, 
and creates and is the beginning of these kingdoms, yet 
there is left behind in each of these kingdoms an indi- 
vidual life element which also evolves, and develops, 
and attains through refinement and vibratory action an 
immortality that carries the most beautiful and highly 
developed species of each of these kingdoms into the 
invisible and spiritual world. 

The flowers are not lost to the spiritual kingdoms, 
nor the plants, nor the minerals, nor even such of the 
animals as develop and attain a vibratory action that is 
sufficiently refining and perfecting to carry them over 
into the invisible and spiritual worlds. 

While each individual life, and particular species of 
life, represented in the coarser materials of nature, can 
attain to a refinement and immortality that will carry 
them over into the spiritual world, yet the particular 
life element in which nature is most interested, and upon 
which she spends most of her time, is that life element 

5 



6 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

that passes through all the different species and king- 
doms of life, and attains to immortality as the final 
product of all of these combined or united in one. I 
refer to that life which has passed through from the 
mineral to man, and on into the invisible or spiritual 
world. 

2. Life is the most beautiful thing in the uni- 
verse. And the more highly a spirit-life is developed, 
the more beautiful it becomes, until it reaches a point 
in perfection and beauty that is indescribable and in- 
comprehensible to man. 

We can best describe a highly developed spirit-life 
by saying that it is a beautiful life that emits a pearly 
white light which throws a radiance around that is 
fairly blinding in its brilliancy; and that this light is 
just as refined and powerful as electricity, though not 
fatal to human touch. 

A spirit-life that is highly developed radiates a 
great pearly white light that shines around like a heaven- 
ly body, and lights up all that is near to it. And through 
this light, that shines from the spirit body of each high- 
ly developed spirit-life, there appears many shades and 
colors of light, some of which are unknown to man, and 
to this physical plane of existence. 

3. Life here and hereafter is the same life, and 
differs not a particle except in the conditions under 
which it lives. 

The coarser physical body necessary to the spirit- 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 7 

life's existence in the coarser physical world disappears, 
as does also its purely physical environment, and these 
are replaced by spiritual conditions and environments 
suitable to its spiritual needs. Beyond this there is no 
change, except as change takes place slowly, gradually, 
a little at a time — as the life evolves, unfolds, develops 
and becomes more perfect. 

4. Man represents a life force that has traveled 
about one-half its journey, and has secured somewhat 
less than one-half its development. That is, the life that 
is in man has since the beginning of time traversed all 
the kingdoms from the mineral to the higher animal 
kingdom, a distance of about one-half its journey to 
completion; and has evolved somewhat less than half 
the vitality and strength necessary to its eternal life. 

5. Those who are of the spiritual world see us, 
not as we appear to each other, but as we would appear 
to each other were we able to see each other outside, or 
through, our physical bodies. 

6. A spirit-life approaching birth in a physical 
body, approaches upward, from a lower plane in the 
scale of development, and is usually not a new ar- 
rival in the human form ; but a spirit-life that has in- 
habited the human form before, and is merely return- 
ing to continue, or complete, its journey in the physi- 
cal world. 

The completion of a spirit-life's journey in the phy- 
sical world depends entirely upon the amount of spiritual 



8 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

vitality attained, and not upon any theory, creed, belief, 
nor even upon the possession of exact spiritual know- 
ledge. However, the spirit-life that has attained to a 
point in its spiritual development where it can grasp, 
understand, and even on occasions perceive for itself 
exact spiritual truths, is nearing physical completion, 
and is about to enter into a new phase, or world, of life. 

It is perfectly understood and known, by all who 
are in position to know anything about the spiritual 
world and life, that those in human form who have not 
yet attained a point in their spiritual development where 
they can know or grasp, or even possess an inkling of 
this spiritual world and life, are not nearing the end of 
their journey in human form; have still some physical 
lives before them in which to develop, to approach 
nearer to the spiritual world, and in which to obtain 
more spiritual vitality. 

We can not approach near to the spiritual world and 
life, in our development, without becoming in some way 
conscious of such world, and in possession of some exact 
knowledge concerning it. 

7. A spiritual entity is without weight in a pure- 
ly physical sense. It knows no law of physical gravita- 
tion. It finds the spiritual materials of our atmosphere, 
and the higher atmospheres and space, sufficient to up- 
hold it, and to maintain it in comfort, with all the con- 
veniences of a superior world life. 

In order to fully understand spirit-life and the spirit- 
ual universe, it is necessary for us to fully grasp the 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 9 

difference between invisible spiritual material and the 
coarser physical material. 

All material, or matter, is fundamentally invisible. 
We can no more see a single atom of physical material 
than we can see an atom of spiritual material. In fact, 
it is from the invisible materials of the invisible universe 
that all visible — and therefore physical material things — 
are made. And the only difference between the invisible 
physical materials and the invisible spiritual materials, 
of which the two different worlds are composed, is a 
difference in the fineness of the particles of material se- 
lected for the construction of these two different worlds. 

The physical worlds are constructed from the coars- 
er particles of the invisible materials of space, and the 
spiritual universe is built out of the finer, or the re- 
fined particles of the invisible materials obtained from 
the same source. 

8. The spirit body, or the body in which the 
spirit-life dwells, is more akin to a liquid, or a gas, 
than to any more solid material substance. It is a 
great white light that is vibrating at a rate of more than 
seven hundred and sixty-four trillion times per second, 
and is therefore not visible except to clairvoyant vision, 
or to an eye attuned to a higher rate of vibration than 
that of which the physical eye is capable. 

The spirit body is composed of spiritual material 
which, compared to physical material, is like the finest 
piece of silk compared to a piece of gunny sack, or any 
other coarsely woven material. 



10 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

The spirit body differs in the fineness of the par- 
ticles of which it is composed, in the quality of these par- 
ticles, and in the workmanship and skill with which 
these particles have been woven together. 

9. The spirit body is connected to the physical 
body near the lower end of the spinal cord, and this 
connection is never broken except at death. Yet the 
spirit-life can, and often does for brief periods of time, 
leave its spirit body behind, and go forth into the phy- 
sical and spiritual world alone. This life has the ability 
to convey for any conceivable distance, and at a speed 
of one hundred and eighty-three thousand miles a 
second, an electro thought form or impression of itself. 
It can maintain this thought form in any position or lo- 
cality for a brief period of time, by continuous reproduc- 
tion, or by sending one thought form after another. 

10. The spirit body is not a counterpart or dupli- 
cate of the physical body, as some assume ; else the spirit 
body of an elderly man would be somewhat crooked and 
unpleasant to look upon. There are no such spirit bodies 
in the spiritual world. 

The spirit body, like the physical body, is subject to 
the law of "change," "unfoldment," "growth" and "de- 
velopment," and to the law of "vibratory correspon- 
dence." It grows not old as does the physical body be- 
cause the spirit-life is still in its infancy, and is trans- 
planted to the spiritual world before it has reached ma- 
turity. There in the spiritual world it continues to 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD II 

evolve ; to vibrate in harmony with its surroundings, and 
to become more and more refined and beautiful. 

11. If the departed spirit-life of an elderly man 
desired to appear to us, who are still in the physical 
world, it would remodel and assemble its spirit body 
sufficiently for us to identify it, and would then assume 
its rightful and natural shape. However, most spirit-lives 
who appear to us do not make use of their spirit body, 
but assemble, and use for that purpose, some of the in- 
visible elements of the invisible universe with which we 
are continually surrounded. 

12. The spirit body with which we depart this 
earth life and enter the first spiritual zone, continues to 
evolve and to undergo changes, and to become more re- 
fined and beautiful as it attains to the second and each 
of the succeeding spiritual zones. 

13. The spirit body grows more beautiful through 
refinement and culture and vibratory activity, and may 
attain to a beauty that is super-human while still in- 
cased in a human form. It may attain to a beauty that 
is super-human while the physical body in which it is 
incased grows not more beautiful, but less beautiful with 
each succeeding day. All depends upon vibratory re- 
finement and culture, and toward what end, or life, this 
refinement and culture is directed. 

The thinking of beautiful thoughts, and the keeping 
of the mind clean, and directed toward the ideal, has 



12 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

much to do with the formation and beauty of both the 
physical and spiritual body, and with the life Within. 

The beauty of the spirit body increases with its 
growth, maturity and completion, and that spirit-life 
which is the most highly developed spiritually, possesses 
the most beautiful spirit body. 

14. The spiritual eye is the most beautiful organ 
of the spirit body. But no words can describe its beauty 
because the beauty is not in the eye, but in the life that 
looks out at you through the eye, of which you catch 
a glimpse now and then as you cast a swift glance at 
the spiritual eye. 

The spiritual eye is usually of the lighter shades of 
blue and gray, and is usually surrounded by a field of 
the purest white. It is large and round, and emits rays 
of light that are of a pearly or silvery white. This or- 
gan has immense magnetic power. 

The darker shades and colors which we know on 
this earth plane are very rare in the spiritual world, 
and do not extend beyond the first spiritual zone. 

15. The hair of a spiritual entity that is highly 
developed spiritually, possesses great lustre, and is a 
thing of great beauty. All such hair varies in shades 
and colors from the very lightest down to the shades of 
brown that still have a little sunshine in them, but does 
not extend to the darker shades of the brown or to the 
black. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 13 

The hair of a highly developed spirit-life is of the 
finest possible texture and quality of spiritual material, 
and possesses a lustre and beauty that can not be des- 
cribed. 

The refinement and the development of the spirit- 
life can be told by the fineness, the quality, and the 
texture of the hair, and to some extent by its tints and 
shades and colors. 

16. All spirit-lives of the spiritual universe, above 
that of the first spiritual zone, are tall, well proportioned 
and graceful; with classical features, and long, shapely 
and tapering fingers and hands that betoken a high state 
of ecstatic development. 

In fact, there are no fat, stocky, ill-proportioned and 
deformed spirit bodies in the spiritual universe, though 
there are some in the first spiritual zone that have not 
yet attained to graceful proportions. And then there 
are the earth bound spirit-lives, and those dainty and 
little, though well proportioned and matured, spirit-lives 
that have charge over the wild life of the physical ma- 
terial worlds. I refer to what we call "fairies." 

17. The spirit body in which a spiritual entity 
resides after leaving its physical body, has certain func- 
tions to perform, like those of the physical body, but 
these functions are of a cleaner and more wholesome 
nature, and consist mostly in that of an outer protec- 
tion or house in which the spirit-life can dwell, and in 
which it can travel about through the spiritual universe. 



14 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

The spirit-life does not require food nor drink of 
any kind, except that which it absorbs from the atmo- 
sphere through which it is passing, and in which it 
dwells. 

18. The spirit body has organs for the free circu- 
lation of air and the ethereal fluids of the spiritual uni- 
verse, but this spirit body is chiefly remarkable for the 
development and the number of the organs by which it 
is able to perceive, to enjoy, and to know. It is chiefly 
remarkable because of its senses, and the range and the 
power of these. 

For instance, a spirit-life that has attained even to 
the first zone of spiritual life has a power of enjoyment 
that is many times greater than that of the physical man, 
even in the highest state of his physical development; 
has a power of enjoyment that is equal, if not superior, 
to that of the seer in moments of ecstasy, illumination, 
or spiritual transportation. The spiritual entities of the 
higher spiritual zones have a sense of enjoyment and a 
power of perception that are as great as those of the 
seer in moments of ecstasy multiplied more than a 
thousand times. 

19. The spirit-lives of the spiritual world are 
clothed in raiment woven from the rays of light emitted 
from their own spirit bodies. This raiment is for the most 
part spotless white, though there is some that is woven 
into beautiful designs with dots and lines of light in 
colors; pink, rose, orange and yellow, crossing the 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 15 

white back ground, and now and then with lines of 
delicate light shades of blue, or with a blue back ground. 
However, the blue is never found as a back ground in 
the higher spheres of spiritual life, but in the back 
ground of spiritual lives that are near to some physical 
material earth, or are earth bound. 

The raiment of the spirit-lives that are near to some 
physical material earth, or are earth bound, varies from 
the silvery white down through the lighter shades of 
the blue, to the darker and even blue-black shade, and 
to the brown. This raiment may also be dotted and 
lined in beautiful designs with rays of light ranging 
from fire light down to the dim shades of pale yellow. 
However, these vary with the life, and the yellow is not 
a very frequent shade or color, even among the spirits 
that are earth bound. 

20. A spiritual entity of the spiritual world 
evolves within its spirit body a means of maintaining 
a spiritual temperature of sixty-eight degrees, and this 
temperature is maintained throughout the spiritual uni- 
verse. However, this temperature is from within the 
spirit body, and does not extend beyond its immediate 
environment. 

I might add, in this connection, that the spirit-life's 
ability to control temperature extends downward, rath- 
er than upward, and that spirit-lives of the first spiritual 
zone ofttimes suffer from excessive heat. 

The ability of a spirit-life to control its environment 
increases with its development, and is far more perfect 



16 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

and complete in the second and higher spiritual zones 
than in the zone that is near to the physical material 
world. 

21. The ability of the spirit-life to generate and 
maintain an average temperature of sixty-eight de- 
grees within its immediate environment is due to the 
emitting of rapidly vibrating rays of light from its 
spirit body, and the action of these rays one upon the 
other. 

22. The suns that shine in space do not tend to 
heat and to light the spiritual universe. Rather, their 
rays are too gross for so refined a substance as spiritual 
material. So they pass directly through this universe 
until they are brought to a halt by some physical ma- 
terial world. Yet the spiritual universe is supplied with 
heat and light. 

I have just told you of the rays of light emitted from 
each spirit body, and how these rays contain and pro- 
duce heat, and maintain an average temperature 
of sixty-eight degrees in the vicinity of each individual 
spirit-life. I now will add that in the higher spiritual 
zones these rays of light containing heat are gathered 
by a powerful heat magnet and the heat is stored, and 
is used to maintain an average temperature throughout 
these zones that is suitable to the life therein. 

23. A spiritual entity can pass directly through a 
door or wall as easily as if these did not exist, though 
not quite so quickly; because in passing through a door 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 17 

or wall a spiritual entity must disunite the different par- 
ticles of its spirit body and pass through between the 
molecules of the physical material that is in its way, 
and then re-assemble or unite its spirit body on the 
other side. This requires time, but not nearly so much 
time as we might assume. In fact, it can be almost in- 
stantaneously accomplished. Yet a spiritual entity, as 
a rule, moves more slowly and leisurely, and often uses 
the larger part of a minute in passing through a door, 
through which it could pass, if necessary, in the frac- 
tional part of a second. 

24. The usual mode of travel, and the one most 
natural to a spiritual entity, is that of leisurely floating 
along through the atmosphere, or through space, usually 
at no great distance from the physical material planet 
on which it once resided. However, if a spiritual entity 
has attained a very high state of spiritual development, 
and has been long in the spiritual worlds, it may not be 
found so near to its former physical material home. 
First, because it no longer belongs so near to the physi- 
cal earth, and second, because the physical earth no long- 
er holds any who are dear to it. 

25. When a spiritual entity desires to ascend or 
to descend through the atmosphere, it does so by a 
slight movement of the arms, hands and feet of its 
spirit body, but when it desires to float leisurely along, 
it does so without any perceivable movement whatever. 

26. In the spiritual world, there are no races, na- 
tionalities, nor color lines. Yet in the spiritual universe 



18 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

as well as in the physical material worlds, there is a 
very wide range of differently developed spirit-lives and 
bodies, owing to the point that each has attained in its 
development. 

The higher in the scale of spiritual development 
a spirit-life is, the more beautiful does it become, and 
the nearer does it approach to the likeness of its Creator. 

It would be impossible to convey to an earth bound 
creature even the slightest conception of the beauty of 
a spirit-life that is approaching completion on any of 
the higher spiritual planes. The brilliancy of the light 
emitted from the spirit body of a highly developed spirit- 
life, would prevent a human from approaching sufficient- 
ly close to behold, or to form an exact idea of the beauty 
of such a being. 

27. In the spiritual world there are reservations 
set apart for worship, quiet, garden like places of great 
natural beauty, in the silence of nature. And it is here, 
in these reservations, that the spirit-lives of each re- 
spective zone come to worship; some in little assemblies 
gathered here and there, and others quite alone in the 
silence. 

The silent worshipers of each respective spiritual 
zone are the most highly developed spirit-lives of that 
zone, and are preparing for the final transportation to a 
higher plane, while the different assemblies gathered 
here and there in little groups by the law of affinity, rep- 
resent the different stages of spiritual development and 
attainment of that zone. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 19 

There are no dogmas, theories and creeds preached to 
the different worshipers of the several spiritual zones. 
In fact, each spirit-life believes according to his or her 
enlightenment. They do not dispute their beliefs with each 
other; because each instinctively knows that what each 
believes is the best possible belief for him in his present 
state of development, and that this belief will change 
as he changes. This is the precise truth. Beliefs 
do, in reality, change as we change in our enlightenment 
and spiritual development, even in this earth life; and 
it naturally follows, therefore, that the more enlightened 
we are, and highly developed spiritually, the more nearly 
do we approach to the truth. 

I might say, in this connection, that enlightenment 
comes with spiritual development; that enlightenment is 
a spiritual attainment, and that none are enlightened save 
those who are correspondingly spiritually developed. 

28. One of the most remarkable discoveries we 
make, in the first spiritual zone, is the almost universal 
change of front on the subject of religion that has taken 
place in the lives of those who have crossed over. 

In the first spiritual zone, and in all other zones of 
the spiritual universe, belief is no longer looked upon 
as the key that unlocks the door to immortal life, nor is 
heaven looked upon as a reward that is given to those 
who believe. Instead, evolution, growth and develop- 
ment, obtained through the operation of natural law, 
is looked upon as the means by which immortal life is 
attained, while heaven is looked upon as the goal toward 



20 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

which we evolve, as the zone and state of development 
that will be ours when we have attained completion. 

29. There are in the spiritual world, and even 
near us, invisible spiritual creatures other than those 
that have come up through the evolution of our planet- 
ary life; invisible spiritual creatures that have evidently 
attained to the spiritual world from planets other than 
ours. But these spirit-lives from other worlds do not 
differ in any essential from us. The difference is mere- 
ly one of detail, due to a difference in planetary condi- 
tions and the environment through which they have 
evolved. 

The laws of nature are all the same on every ter- 
restrial globe, and throughout the spiritual universe. 
So the life that has attained to the spiritual world from 
planets other than ours is so nearly like us that a detailed 
description does not seem to be necessary nor desirable. 
However, there is invisible and spirit-life on the surface 
of our planet other than that with which we are acquaint- 
ed, and some species of this life are interesting and 
might be briefly described. 

For instance, there is the fairy-like spirit-life that is 
to be found in the forest, along the streams and lakes, 
and in other wild and beautiful places on the surface 
of our globe. These are spiritual creatures, small in 
stature, generous in impulse, inclined to do good, and 
to help mankind ; fond of child life, and more akin to the 
creatures of our woodlands and streams than to man. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 21 

Then again, there are spiritual creatures that are to 
be found on the surface of our physical material world, 
and even within our homes and by our firesides, other 
than the departed spirits of our friends. These are 
spiritual creatures apparently of our species and our 
world; obtrusive but not friendly, silent, thoughtful. 
They are clothed in raiment of dark blue, black or grey, 
and apparently are earth bound spirits. 

Still again, there are spiritual creatures, highly de- 
veloped, intelligent and friendly, that generally appear 
for a moment, disappear and reappear in little globes of 
light, in colors of light blue to silver white, with pinkish 
background. 

These spiritual creatures, or spirits, usually appear 
when we are alone in the silence, and they are usually 
the bearers of information, knowledge, and the gift of 
spiritual perception. Their presence is first made mani- 
fest by the sense of spiritual touch, which causes a ting- 
ling sensation to run over the entire nervous system of 
the physical body. 

30. The first spiritual zone is that which immedi- 
ately surrounds our earth, and that of each physical 
material world in space. It is a zone of less refinement 
than that of the zones above and beyond it, though 
more refined than that of the physical material earths 
and more beautiful than these. 

The first spiritual zone is near to us. It is, in a sense, 
around and about us. It contains those spirit-lives who 
have recently departed, those who are earth bound, and 



22 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

considerable other invisible and spiritual life of which 
we know but little. 

The length of time which each spirit-life remains 
in the first spiritual zone depends upon the point that it 
has reached in its development, and the rate with which 
it continues to evolve. 

Some spirit-lives remain in the first spiritual zone 
for a long period, and are met in this zone by most of 
their loved ones whom they left behind in the physical 
material world; while other spirit-lives pass rapidly 
through the first spiritual zone, and are soon to be found 
amid the beauties of the second. 

The second spiritual zone lies directly above the 
first, and in a more rarefied and beautiful atmosphere. 
It is a zone that is perfectly free from all earth bound 
spirits, from all spirits of the coarser refinement, and 
from the many different species of invisible and spirit- 
ual life that are to be found on and near the earth and 
other physical material planets, and in the first spiritual 
zone. 

There are in the second spiritual zone many beautiful 
things that it would be impossible to describe, or to con- 
vey anything like an accurate conception of to human 
beings, and this is also true of the third, fourth and 
other spiritual zones. 

In the second spiritual zone we begin to have beau- 
tiful spiritual structures, built from the finer particles 
of spiritual materials; beautiful spiritual creations in 
art, music and literature; beautiful plants, flowers, trees 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 23 

and forests, built from the refined particles of the vege- 
table kingdom, transported from the different physical 
material worlds. 

There are also in the second spiritual zone many beau- 
tiful gems that may have existed in a crude state in 
physical matter. 

31. Each spiritual zone of the spiritual universe 
has boundary lines that are as distinct and marked as the 
animal is from the human. While these zones fade and 
blend into each other through the evolution, growth and 
development of the life, yet the distinction is still there, 
and we are able to tell in which zone of spiritual de- 
velopment a selected spirit-life is to be found, or to which 
zone it belongs. 

32. Each zone of the spiritual universe has its 
own peculiar government; a government that varies 
slightly, according to the development of the life there- 
in, and to the point that the majority thereof have at- 
tained in their spiritual enlightenment and refinement. 
However, each of these governments is largely of a 
personal nature, with the exception of that of the first 
spiritual zone. In this zone there is so much life of a 
lower nature that a more restricted and centralized gov- 
ernment is necessary. And this government of the first 
spiritual zone — the first zone removed from our earth 
life — is not very different from our own government, 
except in some details, the exact nature of which I am 
not able to understand. Yet I know that these details 
refer, largely, to certain laws and forces in nature that 



24 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

may be and are occasionally misused by some of the 
malicious, evil and mischievous life of the first spiritual 
zone. 

33. The beauty of the first spiritual zone does 
not greatly exceed that of this earth plane. But the 
spirit-life's ability to appreciate and to admire the beau- 
tiful is in some instances greatly increased, and con- 
tinues to increase with its advance upward, and into the 
second spiritual zone; a zone that attains to a state of 
the beautiful that is beyond the comprehension of man. 

34. There are around and about us at least five 
Worlds that are invisible to us, and of which we know 
next to nothing. 

The first is a microscopic world, or a world of life 
so small that we can not see it. The second is a world 
that is not sufficiently condensed for us to see — a world 
through which we see without seeing anything. The 
third is a world of rapidly vibrating matter; a world of 
matter that is moving at a speed that eludes all 
senses. The fourth is the psychic, or thought world. 
The fifth is the spiritual world, or that world of life 
that intermingles and interpenetrates the thought world, 
and each and all of these other worlds. 

To these worlds may be added the world of the un- 
conscious mind. This is that world which is the most 
near to the spiritual world, and through which most of 
our spiritual knowledge must necessarily come. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 25 

35. Spiritual material being finer than physical 
material, it has the ability to penetrate through even 
the most compact and solid of all physical substances, 
and if necessary can occupy the same space that these 
substances occupy. 

36. Everything is invisible in proportion to its 
refinement on the spiritual side. Therefore, there are as 
many different shades of the invisible as there are 
grades of spiritual refinement. Some of these shades 
of the invisible are themselves invisible to the spiritual 
creatures of the first spiritual world, who in their turn 
are invisible to us. 

37. The invisible is the real. Were this not so 
we should not be able to reduce nearly everything in 
nature back to the invisible. 

The reason why we can not reduce everything in 
nature back to the invisible is because we do not suffi- 
ciently understand the laws of their composition. 

Everything of which we know in the physical uni- 
verse came from the invisible, and will and does even- 
tually return to the invisible. 

38. It is from the invisible that the visible is 
made. It is through a condensing and a reducing, and 
a making more compact and solid, and a proper mixing 
of the invisible elements, that the visible comes into 
existence; that it has form, and takes unto itself certain 
characteristics. 



26 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

All the elements of the spiritual and the physical 
universe are invisible when in their native state. They 
only become visible, to certain kinds of perception, when 
they are confined or compact, and arranged in a certain 
order ; or when mixed in certain ways by the application 
of forces known to the Creator of the universe, and 
known to a more limited extent to spirit-lives of the 
spiritual world, and to man. 

The difference between spiritual material and physi- 
cal material is largely in the different materials selected, 
and in the fineness of the particles of these materials, 
and in the way that they are mixed together. 

There is also a difference in the rate of vibratory ac- 
tion with which the particles of these different ma- 
terials act upon each other. This has nothing to do 
with the original materials, but with the refining of 
these, and the law by which they are held together. 

39. The atmosphere of the higher spiritual zones 
is clearer and lighter, and more rarefied, than the atmo- 
sphere of our earth lands. It is entirely free from the 
coarse particles of physical material which pollute the 
atmosphere of the first spiritual zone. 

Spirit-lives of the higher spiritual zones find it diffi- 
cult to remain in the denser, darker, and more polluted 
and melancholy atmospheres that surround each of our 
terrestrial globes, and hence, do not descend to these 
earth lands except when duty calls them. 

40. There are in the higher atmospheres, yet im- 
mediately surrounding each of the physical material 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 2T 

worlds, atmospheric solids of more or less density and 
thickness, and currents or rivers of moving atmospheric 
matter, lakes and ponds of more rarefied air, and many 
other atmospheric conditions that correspond to the phy- 
sical material world. And these solids, rivers, lakes and 
ponds of the higher atmosphere are to physically disem- 
bodied spirit-life, as are the physical material solids, 
rivers, lakes and ponds to embodied spirit-lives. 

41. There is no pain on the spiritual side of life. 
But there is a sort of anguish, a spiritual suffering, due 
to two things, namely: to our being or getting out of 
harmony with the purpose of life, and to our having 
those who are near and dear to us make such mistakes. 

When those who are near and dear to us, on any of 
the planes of life, fail to live as wisely as we do, they 
are soon separated from us by the law of evolution, 
which causes them to evolve less rapidly than we evolve, 
and therefore to be left behind us on some of the lower 
planes or worlds of life. This separation causes us 
spiritual suffering or anguish, and even sometimes de- 
lays us on our journey to higher spiritual zones. 

We sometimes attempt to delay our own spiritual 
development in order to carry those with us who are 
near and dear to us, but usually we find this task use- 
less, or hopeless, and so depart in sorrow; knowing full 
well that it is our own spiritual development that is of 
importance to each of us. 

Some of us who are struggling through the physi- 
cal world today might have been where some of our 



2S$ FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

loved ones are in the spiritual world if we had lived 
more in harmony with the law of spiritual evolution in 
some of our former lives. Had we so lived, much spirit- 
ual anguish and sorrow would have been saved to us and 
to them, and we should not have been separated by the 
law of evolution until more than one life time lies be- 
tween. 

42. Restlessness is a spiritual sickness. It is a 
state of being out of harmony with the purpose of life. 
Often spirit-lives of the first spiritual zone are afflicted 
with this disease. 

43. There is sickness in the spiritual world as 
well as here, and in the other physical material worlds, 
but there are no infectious germ diseases. In fact, all 
the sickness there is in the spiritual world is due to 
the violation of natural and spiritual laws. These viola- 
tions become less frequent as the spirit-life evolves and 
becomes more enlightened and developed, and may be 
said to disappear entirely in the second spiritual zone. 

In the first spiritual zone, however, sickness is com- 
paratively frequent, due in part, to the fact that the 
spirit-life is still imperfectly developed and inclined to 
evil, and in part to the nearness of earth bound spirit- 
lives and of the spirit-lives of the physical material 
worlds. 

This sickness that is in the spiritual world varies 
from that of mere restlessness and unhappiness to actual 
spiritual suffering, according to the frequency with 
which laws have been violated., and the spirit-life's 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 29 

general attitude toward these laws and the purpose of 
life. 

The ability of the spirit-lives of the first spiritual 
zone to know all our secret thoughts, desires, motives 
and acts, tends to disgust them with things that are 
evil, and to help them the more quickly to overcome 
all forms of sickness through continually living in har- 
mony with the laws of nature and of the spiritual world. 

The spirit-lives of the spiritual world soon learn how 
best to live, through seeing and experiencing that 
restlessness, unhappiness and suffering which are the 
result of living otherwise, and through constantly being 
urged on, by something within them, to the joy of a 
higher life. 

44. Earth bound spirits, and spirits that are yet 
near to some physical material earth, need to be ex- 
plained, as these differ slightly in their development, 
and in the point to which they have attained in life. 

Earth bound spirits are spirit-lives that have not yet 
completed their journey in human form, and must there- 
fore return again to earth, and keep on so returning 
until they have attained sufficient spiritual vitality, 
strength and development to no longer need the pro- 
tection of a physical body or form. They are spirits 
that departed their physical body, through death, be- 
fore they had completed their physical journey, or 
were prepared for the life that is beyond. 

All other spirit-lives that are in the first spiritual 
zone are spiritual entities that /have completed their 



30 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL! KNOWLEDGE 

physical material journey, but have not yet attained to a 
high point in the spiritual world, and so must linger 
near to earth until they have attained a little more 
spiritual vitality and strength, before they can venture 
into that more rarefied atmosphere which is above. 

It is not an uncommon thing for a spirit-life to have 
failed to complete its earthly journey in one lifetime, or 
in a number of lifetimes, and therefore to have to re- 
turn to earth again in human form. In fact, this re- 
turning is so common that it fails to attract any at- 
tention on that spiritual plane, next to the physical ma- 
terial world, where these earth bound spirits dwell until 
they can again return to earth, to complete their jour- 
ney in the physical material world. 

45. Most of the departed spirit-lives that we have 
known in our present journey through this world, are to 
be found in this near-to-earth zone, which in reality in- 
termingles with our earth life, though it is invisible to 
us. That is to say, that most of our departed loved 
ones are near us — are with us. They are in our presence, 
and are able to help us, and to suggest things to us that 
are for our good, without our being conscious of the 
source from which we have received the suggestion. 

However, the means of communication between the 
living and the dead is imperfect — in some cases does not 
exist on a conscious plane. Hence many of us pass 
through this physical life more or less unconscious of 
the presence of our departed loved ones, and of the 
presence of that vast world of invisible and spiritual life 
that is around and about us. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 31 

Remember that the first spiritual zone, of the spiritual 
universe, is around and about us, and that the departed 
spirit-lives, both those who are earth bound and those 
who have completed their earthly journey, remain in 
this zone for an indefinite period of time, that may ex- 
tend over many years; and that these spirits of the first 
spiritual zone intermingle with us, live with us, and in 
some cases are us, more completely than we are our- 
selves. 

46. Some little time is usually required, at death, 
for the spirit-life to disengage and to disconnect its 
spirit body, and to assemble this body outside the phy- 
sical body. 

Nature, or the spirit-life, usually does this gradually, 
slowly, a little at a time, over a period of several hours, 
but it can, when necessary, accomplish this task in a 
much shorter though indefinite period of time. 

Many things may interfere, to a limited extent, with 
the rapid assembly of the spirit body outside the phy- 
sical body. Among these, besides other unnecessary 
thinjgs, are ^atmospheric disturbances, especially those 
that produce loud and discordant sounds ; such as 
laughing, crying, weeping and wailing. 

Instinctively we are silent in the chamber of a de- 
parting spirit. Not to be so is wrong, because it is in 
the silence that the spirit-life is best able to take its de- 
parture. However, harmonious sound waves, when not 
too loud or too gay, when not harsh or sad, are not to 
be despised, and may be, in some cases, a fitting and 



32 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

appropriate accompaniment to the spirit-life's departure. 
It is an infallible guide that anything which pro- 
duces discord, or is exciting to the nerves, is harmful, 
and tends to retard and make more painful the depar- 
ture of a departing spirit-life. Loud colors, sounds, 
scents, and anything else which does not blend into the 
harmony of the surroundings, are to be avoided, and 
especially is silence to be desired. 

47. What we call the departing is to those on 
the spiritual side the arriving. Usually there are some 
of the departing spirit-life's friends, from the other 
side, waiting at his bedside to receive him. To these 
we owe a certain courtesy and consideration irrespec- 
tive of our own personal grief, and of the fact that they 
are not visible. The departing belongs to those who 
are waiting to receive him, and not to us, from whom 
he is departing. 

48. A spirit-life may arrive in the first spiritual 
zone in a stunned condition, due to the violent and sud- 
den tearing apart of the physical and the spirit body. 
Under such conditions the spirit-life is apt to pass 
through a profound sleep, lasting for many days and 
even months, before it attains to a state of spiritual 
health. Yet the average spirit-life arrives in the first 
spiritual zone in a perfectly conscious and even happy 
state of mind, and suffers no inconvenience whatever in 
being transplanted from one world to the other. 

Sleep, in the first spiritual zone of the spiritual 
world, is not an uncommon thing. But the desire for 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 33 

slumber, and the necessity for it, gradually grow less 
frequent as the spirit-life evolves, and finally disappear 
entirely with the transplanting of the spirit-life into the 
second spiritual zone of the first spiritual world. 

49. Death, such as we know it in the physical 
material universe, is unknown to the spiritual worlds. 
In these the spirit-lives change from one zone to an- 
other, and from one spiritual world to another, through 
the refining of the different partides of thdr spirit 
bodies, and through the evolution of their spirit lives. 

Death, in the physical sense, ends with the physical 
body. In the spiritual worlds there is a continual fad- 
ing out of one's former self, into one's newer self, 
through a process that is scarcely perceivable except 
to a close observer. We simply change from one zone 
to another, and from one world to another, and are 
scarcely conscious of the change until suddenly we 
awake to find ourselves already transported from one 
zone to another, or from one world to another. 

There is in the spiritual world no passing out of 
the spirit body, and no entering in of another spirit body. 
We simply change our body gradually, for the change 
that is about to take place in our spiritual environment, 
and depart taking our spirit body with us. 

50. Death, in the physical sense, does not change 
the life of the departing spirit in any way. The change 
is entirely with the conditions under which the life lives, 
and not with the life itself. 



34 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

The spirit-life that has attained to the first spiritual 
zone has all the weaknesses, and all the vices, and all 
the virtues and strong points of character that it pos- 
sessed in human form, save those that were of a purely 
physical nature, and that therefore disappeared with 
the physical vitality and life. 

If the departed spirit-life was inclined to malice, and 
to hate, and to evil, it is still so inclined, and has not, 
in fact, completed its physical journey, and must return 
again to earth in human form; until it has learned its 
lessons, and obtains sufficient spiritual vitality and de- 
velopment to become a suitable citizen of the first spirit- 
ual zone. 

Nature can not be deceived, nor outwitted, nor tak- 
en advantage of. No man shall enter and remain in 
the spiritual world until he has attained to a certain 
point in his spiritual development. To this law there 
is no exception, nor is there, in fact, any exception to 
any of the laws of nature. 

51. There is no reason why the dead should im- 
mediately depart from their earth homes, merely because 
they have departed from their physical bodies, nor do 
they always do so. In fact, the first spiritual zone, in 
which the dead are to spend a considerable period of 
time, is upon this earth plane, and within our atmo- 
sphere. Therefore, it is not necessary for the dead, or 
the physically departed, to immediately depart from 
their earth homes unless they so desire. But though 
the dead depart not, they are not visible to us, and they 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 35 

may remain within our homes for an indefinite period 
without our knowledge. 

The dead do often remain within our homes indef- 
initely, but seldom do we become conscious of their 
presence except under certain conditions, the nature of 
which is so complex that to describe these conditions 
perfectly would require volumes. 

52. All life is spirit. The refrain of all nature is: 
"All life is spirit." And all spirit-life is in course of 
evolution through innumerable forms and changes and 
lives until it reaches and passes through the human 
form, and continues its evolution is the spiritual world. 

The spirit-life is transferred to the spiritual world 
as soon as it has evolved sufficient vitality, strength 
and development to no longer need the protection of a 
physical material form. And this requires at least one 
hundred thousand centuries of our earth time. 

The spirit-life that has attained to the spiritual world 
has covered less than one half its journey to the high- 
er heavens of the first spiritual world, where the angels 
dwell, and where all spirits, who attain to that zone, 
become angels. 

The angels of the higher heavens of the first spirit- 
ual world are still at the beginning of their journey. 
They have just begun to enter into the joys of life. All 
eternity is before them, and an innumerable number of 
other spiritual worlds through which to evolve, and to 
enjoy life. 



36 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

53. Angels and fairies are the two most widely 
known of all the spiritual creatures of the spiritual uni- 
verse. This is true of fairies because the fairy was 
associated with man in the earlier stages of his develop- 
ment, or before he even entered into the human form, 
and because this spirit is especially fond of children and 
child life, and delights in entertaining and visiting with 
them, though unperceived by them. The same is true 
of the angels, because the angels are the official repre- 
sentatives of the Creator of the universe, and have been 
known to man from the remotest period of his intel- 
ligence. 

Angels are the most highly developed spiritual crea- 
tures of the spiritual universe. They are clothed in 
raiment of spotless white, composed of rays of light 
emitted from their own spirit bodies, which throw a 
radiant light around them that is blinding to the human 
eye for a distance of many feet. 

Angels seldom travel alone. Usually they travel 
in twos and threes, and sometimes in vast hosts, accord- 
ing to the mission on which they journey. These mes- 
sengers from the heavenly throne travel here and there 
throughout the whole spiritual universe, and often are 
assigned tasks that keep them for long periods of time 
on or near some one of the physical material planets. 

Angels sometimes visit the bedside of a departing 
spirit from this earth life when in some way that de- 
parting spirit has performed some especially important 
mission during its earthly journey, and has attained to 
an especially high state of spiritual development in 
human form. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 37 

Again, a single angel, or a host of angels, may be 
assigned to watch over, or to guard, some spirit-life 
that has been sent to earth, on some mission, in human 
form. 

54. The idea that angels, or highly developed 
spirit-lives, possess wings is not entirely correct, because 
these wings are not wings really, but rays of light that, 
are emitted from the body, and that serve as a means 
of travel when the spirit-life is in haste. 

I might add, in this connection, that the speed of 
a heavenly messenger through space exceeds that of 
light, and that light has a speed of one hundred and 
eighty-three thousand miles per second. 

55. The angels are the only spiritual creatures in 
the universe that have attained to spiritual completion, 
and therefore to the higher heavens, where the Creator 
of the universe reigns. There all things are first con- 
ceived. There the first life germ of each species and 
kind of life is compounded and sent to some physical 
material world, to be united with the mineral elements, 
and thus started on its journey. 

I might add, that those in these higher heavens 
know the final history of each life germ, or species of 
life, before it is implanted in nature, but do not know 
all the details of that life germ's journey to completion. 

Through a knowledge of the laws of nature, and the 
compound of which each life germ is composed, the 
Creator and the creatures of the higher heavens are 
able to comprehend and to know the final outcome of, 



38 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

the life journey of each germ of life, but not to compre- 
hend and to know all the little events that may happen to 
that life germ in the course of its evolution. 

It is clearly an unimportant thing whether you com- 
plete your human journey in one human body or in two, 
so long as you complete your journey in human form. 

It is the final outcome that is important, and not the 
details through which that outcome is attained. 

56. In the beginning there were no angels in the 
higher heavens. Indeed, no higher heavens existed. 
All had to be created, evolved and perfected. 

The angels are merely spirit-lives that have completed 
their evolution and attained to perfection in the usual 
way, having traversed all the physical material kingdoms 
and species of life up to and including man, and having 
passed through all the spiritual zones this side of the 
higher heavens. 

In the beginning God alone existed. Of the source 
of his existence he knew nothing, save that he came to 
consciousness out in the great silence of space. He at 
once conceived the idea of creating a universe out of the 
materials that were all about him — materials to us in- 
visible. 

God's original conception of a universe was very 
different from the universe that now exists, because 
his idea grew as he continued to think upon it, and to 
build it. Even yet the idea is not complete, but is con- 
tinuing to grow, evolve, and change. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 39 

57. All the laws of nature run directly through 
and exist on the spiritual plane, and in the spiritual 
worlds, as well as here. But all of these laws are not 
generally understood, and some of them need to be ex- 
plained. 

For instance, there is the law of evolution, by which 
all things obtain their development, or growth, and at- 
tain to different kingdoms of life, and planes of life. 
Through that law they finally attain completion, through 
innumerable changes, births and deaths experienced in 
connection with the mineral, vegetable and animal 
kingdoms, as well as with the spiritual kingdoms, of 
which there are many. 

Then there is the law harmony. This is the law 
by which all things work together, and in vibratory 
correspondence with each other, and by which discord is 
prevented. Then there are the law of love, the law of 
affinity, and various other laws, too numerous to men- 
tion. Each of these laws should be studied and under- 
stood, because they exist in the spiritual as well as in 
the physical worlds, and are of vital importance to us 
on every plane of life, and in every world in which we 
shall find ourselves in the course of our journey to 
completion. 

58. There are thousands of forces or laws in na- 
ture of which we know nothing, and yet of which it is 
necessary that we should know before we can fully un- 
derstand spiritual life, or even physical life in all its 
phases. 



40 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

For instance, why do some spirit-lives at death de- 
part immediately, while others linger behind, sometimes 
for days and months and even years? Then again, 
why do the departed spirits of some whom we have 
never known in life come and reside with us, while per- 
haps our own departed loved ones may take their im- 
mediate departure? 

There are laws and reasons for these things, and 
these laws and reasons are known to spiritual entities 
of the spiritual worlds, and many of these laws can be 
made known to us. 

59. The reason why some of our loved ones take 
their departure, while others linger behind, is because 
some of them have completed their journey in human 
form, while others are still earth bound; is because 
some of them have completed their earthly journey, and 
so enter into the life of the spiritual worlds, while oth- 
ers — the spirit-lives who are still earth bound — linger 
behind, and take up their abode with us until such time 
as they can return to earth in human form. 

60. You can mount to the height of your highest 
spiritual conception, but you can not remain there. You 
must return again to the point you have attained in 
your spiritual development. Yet each time that you 
mount above your spiritual development, you tend to 
strengthen and to increase the rate of your vibration 
upward. Each time that you try to mount out of your- 
self, you succeed in lifting yourself a little nearer to the 
final goal. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 41 

61. We approach nearer to the spiritual on the 
side of our feelings than at any other point. It is here that 
our inability to hear and to see does not disturb us, nor 
rob us of anything that we should know. The ability 
to see — spiritual perception — follows closely upon feel- 
ing, and we are soon able to see that which in a spirit- 
ual sense we are able to feel. 

62. The instinctive desires that possess us here 
continue to control us on the other side. Thus, those 
who desire to create beautiful things in earth life, con- 
tinue still to so desire; and if the desire be strong 
enough they will strive to create beautiful things, and 
will succeed. 

Yes, there are artists, and musicians, and poets, and 
thinkers, and philosophers, and authors, on the other 
side of life. And some of these, in their striving, suc- 
ceed in communicating to us some part of that which 
they have conceived and created over there. 

Those spirit-lives who were not successful here, 
but who continued their efforts on the other side, and 
who have eventually succeeded, are the ones who are 
the most anxious to convey back to us some idea of 
their identity, and some inkling, or some part, of their 
work. 

Some of these spirit-lives come to us with beautiful 
songs, all complete and ready to be set to music, or to 
be transplanted to paper. Others bring us beautiful 
truths, or conceptions, or pictures, and bid us reproduce 
them. And all strive to help us, to communicate through 



42 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

us, and to convey to the world some idea of their work, 
identity and eventual success. 

63. Most spiritual communications that reach this 
earthland of ours, arrive from earth bound spirits, and 
spirit-lives of the first spiritual zone. 

This is due entirely to the law of vibratory corres- 
pondence. That law requires that in order for two or- 
ganisms to respond to each other, they must vibrate at 
the same rate. In other words, they must be keyed to 
the same number of vibrations per second — must be in 
tune with each other. 

The reason that spiritual knowledge arriving from 
the first spiritual zone is unsatisfactory, and tells us 
nothing or next to nothing, of the spiritual world, is due 
to the fact that the spirits of the first spiritual zone have 
not, in a sense, entered the spiritual world, but are 
merely preparing to enter; and are therefore in no po- 
sition to tell us anything of the spiritual world. 

The only precise knowledge of the spiritual world 
that is reaching this earthland of ours is arriving from 
higher spiritual zones, and is being received by a few 
masters and seers who have attained in human form to 
a remarkably high state of spiritual development. 

Most, if not all, of the communications received 
from the first spiritual zone have to do with the estab- 
lishing of identity, and with the consolation of, and the 
suggestion of things to, the spirit-lives that are still in hu- 
man form. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 43 

64. Some spirit-lives of the spiritual world have 
attained to a more complete mastery of the means of 
communication between the spiritual world and the 
physical world than have others, and are therefore in 
position to tell us more than other spirit-lives are able 
to tell us, and to convey their information in a way that 
will be more accurately and completely understood by us. 

There are spirit-lives in the spiritual world, as well 
as here, who have developed along certain lines, and 
who have mastered certain difficult arts and accom- 
plishments more completely than have others. Among 
these masters of the spiritual world are some who have 
attained to a considerable knowledge of things spiritual, 
and who are able to convey a part of this knowledge to 
a very few and select number of spirit-lives who are 
still in human form. 

In the physical material worlds there are also those 
who have developed along certain lines, and among 
these there are some who have attained to a very high 
point in their spiritual development, and who possess a 
considerable knowledge of the means of communica- 
tion between the physical and the spiritual worlds, to- 
gether with an especially sensitive intellect, or means of 
receiving such communications. 

It naturally follows that the masters of knowledge 
and of the means of communication, on the spiritual 
side of life, seek to and do convey that knowledge to 
the more highly developed spirit-lives on the physical 
side of life, who possess the required sensitive receiv- 
ing stations, or intellects. 



44 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

65. There are two reasons why most persons know 
so little of the spiritual world and of the life beyond. 
The one reason is lack of sufficient spiritual develop- 
ment. The other reason is lack of a sufficiently sensi- 
tive intellect with which to receive spiritual communi- 
cations and knowledge. 

66. The usual means of communication in the 
spiritual world, and between the spiritual and the phy- 
sical worlds, is that of thought transfer sent clairvoy- 
antly, or clairaudiently, or that of rays of light. 

When a spirit-life desires to send a message clair- 
voyantly, it does so by picturing the receptive person- 
ality and locality, and the message to be sent. If it 
desires to send the message clairaudiently, it thinks of 
the receptive mind, and directs the message to that 
mind by force of will, and in thought form. 

Messages sent by rays of light, emitted from the 
spirit body of the sending life, have the peculiar ad- 
vantage over other messages of conveying to the re- 
ceiving life a sense of personal touch and presence. 

Spiritual communication between spirit-lives of the 
same spiritual zone is comparatively easy, though this 
ability to communicate becomes more difficult as it ex- 
tends downward or upward in the scale of spiritual 
evolution, and therefore of vibratory activity and re- 
finement. 

It is with difficulty that the spiritual world is able 
to communicate with the physical world because of the 
coarseness of the physical mind and the difference in 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 45 

the rate of vibration between the different lives of the 
spiritual and the physical worlds. 

67. All our secrets and secret thoughts are re- 
vealed to the spirit-life of the first spiritual zone, and 
to such of the spirit-lives of the higher zones as may 
care to know them. 

When we have done anything that is wrong, or have 
thought anything that we should not have thought, we 
are possessed with a vague consciousness that our 
secret is known, and that our act or thought has not 
been approved, or favorably received, by that vast host 
of invisible life with which we are surrounded. 

68. No long and continuous communications 
reach us from the spiritual world. Even those com- 
munications coming from the more enlightened, intel- 
ligent and informed spirit-lives of the higher spiritual 
zones are apt to be in fragments or pieces, and to lack 
unity and sequence. 

Today we receive from one in the higher spiritual 
zone a beautiful message — in part. Then some other 
spiritual entity seizes the line of communication and 
the beautiful message is broken. Then tomorrow, or 
next day, or next month, or next year, the beautiful 
message is continued from the point where it was 
broken off. Thus the beautiful message comes through 
in pieces and fragments, each of which is received at 
a different time, over a period that may extend into 
many years. 



46 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

The spiritual world is able to get through a few 
trivial and unimportant messages complete, but even 
these are apt to be fragmentary, and to be continued at 
a later date. 

Communications containing exact information, and 
knowledge of importance, to the physical material 
worlds, are continually coming through from the spirit- 
ual universe. But these communications are often in 
pieces, with each piece received at a different time. 
Sometimes not all of these pieces are received by the 
same mind, and so much valuable information, know- 
ledge and truth are lost to the world, or are obtained in 
pieces, and from different minds. 

69. The most lofty and intelligent messages that 
reach us from the other side reach us in moments of 
inspiration or illumination, or in the depth of profound 
and natural sleep. These messages reach us when we 
are in an exalted state, and above normal, not when we 
are in a trance state, or in any other state that is below 
normal. 

70. The recent dead can tell us nothing of the 
spiritual world because of the fact that they have not 
advanced beyond the borderland of the first spiritual 
zone, and know not what is beyond. Besides, most of 
the recently departed spirit-lives are earth bound — have 
yet some lives to live upon this earth — and will not ad- 
vance, on their present journey, beyond the borderland 
of the first spiritual zone. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 47 

All the knowledge of the spiritual world that we 
may receive, and that can be relied upon, must come 
from spirit-lives who have long departed this life, and 
who completed their journey in human form before 
their departure. 

Indeed, all other spirit-lives are silent upon this 
important question. Though they may hover near us 
and seek to guard and protect us, and even may warn 
us of approaching events that cast their shadows be- 
fore, yet do they remain discreetly silent in regard to 
the spiritual world, because they know not of this 
world, and are not therefore in position to speak of it. 

All knowledge of the spiritual world must be ob- 
tained from the more highly developed spirit-lives of 
the spiritual world; from spirit-lives that have at least 
passed beyond the borderland of the first spiritual zone. 

71. The author of this book has on the other 
side of life many who were, and are, near and dear to 
him. Among these are his father and mother, and a 
number of his very dearest and best friends. Yet none 
of these have ever been able to reveal to him any im- 
portant knowledge of the spiritual worlds, though they 
have often been in rapport and communication with 
him, and have on a number of occasions conveyed to 
him some very important information concerning this 
earth life, and events that were casting their shadows 
before. 

72. All spiritual knowledge that is conveyed to 
us directly from the second and higher spiritual zones 



48 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

reaches us clairaudiently, and by means of spiritual 
sound waves. And silence is necessary to the receiv- 
ing and the recording of spiritual sound waves, because 
these waves are keyed to a pitch so low that they can 
not be heard amid the roar and clash of the sound waves 
of every day life. 

We must enter the silence in order to hear that still, 
faint voice with which angels speak, and with which 
spiritual entities of the higher spiritual zones seek to 
convey to us some knowledge of their world and life. 
Not only must we enter the silence, but in the silence 
we must remain perfectly still. That is, we must keep 
our minds free from earthly impressions, and in con- 
dition to receive the faintest sound waves that may be 
wafted to us on the wings of that eternal silence of 
which we, for the moment, have become a part. 

The silence is the first essential. A mind free from 
earthly impressions is the second. But before either 
of these can admit of success, we must have attained to 
a sufficient refinement of mind to make this organ es- 
pecially sensitive to the presence of the finest and most 
faintly perceivable of sound or thought waves, and 
must have attained to a rather high state in our spiritual 
development. Otherwise we shall not get in rapport 
with any of the higher spiritual zones. 

73. There are individuals in the physical ma- 
terial world who have especially sensitive intellects, and 
who are able to get into vibratory correspondence with 
spirit-lives of the first spiritual zone, and to receive from 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 49 

these unimportant information in a more or less frag- 
mentary state. Then there are a few highly developed 
spirit-lives, still in human form, who are able to get into 
communication with the higher spiritual zones, and to 
receive from these zones much information that is of 
vital importance to the human race. 

Little information, if any, from the higher spiritual 
zones, reaches us through the usual channels of com- 
munication. All of the more important and beautiful 
messages that are received by man are received direct, 
and by a few highly developed spirit-lives, in human 
form, who are in vibratory harmony with the higher 
spiritual zones. 

74. A receiving station is necessary to the re- 
ceiving of messages from the spiritual world. But most 
of the messages thus received are mistaken for passing 
thoughts or conceptions, and are never understood to 
have been received from the spiritual world. However, 
we sometimes have a sneaking conviction that what we 
conceive, or receive, is not our own; but we take the 
credit for all that, and the more brilliant the concep- 
tion is, the more we are prone to claim it as our own. 

We are willing to concede to the spiritual world all 
our trivial and unimportant thoughts and passing con- 
ceptions, but we are unwilling to concede to anyone, the 
more important and beautiful thoughts and conceptions 
that come to us. 

75. Not all the thought forms, communications 
and impressions that assail us, and are received by us, 



50 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

can be depended upon to be accurate, truthful and just. 
First, because these may arrive in part from different 
minds, and from both the spiritual and the physical 
worlds. Second, because there are malicious, mischiev- 
ous and evil lives in both these worlds, and we may be 
receiving from any one of these lives or worlds, and 
from a number of both, at the same time. 

The atmosphere of our terrestrial globe is teeming 
with thought forms and impressions of every conceiv- 
able kind, which are traveling at every conceivable rate 
of vibration per second, and we must continually be 
assailed by such of these thought forms and impressions 
as are attuned to our rate of vibration. 

In cases of physical illness and abnormal physical 
condition, our mind may change its rate of vibration 
rapidly, both upward and downward in the scale of 
vibratory activity. Therefore such a mind may receive 
a very miscellaneous collection of messages, ranging 
from those of the higher spiritual zones downward to 
those of earth life of the most evil nature. 

All evil thought forms, impressions and messages 
vibrate less rapidly than those that come from a more 
lofty height in spiritual evolution or life. 

76. Thought is the usual means of communica- 
tion in the spiritual worlds; and as all thought elements 
are fundamentally the same among all nationalities, and 
on all the terrestrial globes, there is no confusion through 
a failure to understand each other in the spiritual worlds. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 51 

Each spirit-life thinks the thought it wishes to ex- 
press, or pictures it, and the receiving spirit-life in- 
stantly recognizes the thoughts and understands, with- 
out the intervention of words. However, I would not 
have you think there is no spoken language in the spirit- 
ual worlds, but merely that this language is seldom used, 
because thought transfer is the easier and more natural 
way. 

77. The only claim that most of us have on the 
spiritual world is a love claim; is a love for some one 
on the other side that tends to draw that one near to 
us, and to establish rapport, or a state in which com- 
munication is made easy. However, this love claim may 
be on the side of the departed, as well as on our side, 
and may cause them to draw near to us, and to bring 
the conditions necessary to communication within our 
grasp. 

A love claim is usually the connecting link between 
the physical and the spiritual world in so far as it con- 
cerns the first spiritual zone and the lives of those who 
have recently departed. But something more than a 
love claim is necessary when higher spiritual zones are 
to be entered, and more highly developed life communi- 
cated with. 

We may attain to the first spiritual zone, and to a 
communication with our departed loved ones there 
through the attractive power of love alone, but when we 
wish to get into communication with the higher zones, 
we must do so through evolution, growth, development 



52 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

— through attaining to a high state of vibratory refine- 
ment while still in human form. 

78. The mind of a spirit-life that is highly de- 
veloped is attuned to a speed of thought that is many 
times as rapid as that of the human mind; to a speed of 
thought that can not be recorded by the human mind in 
its ordinary or normal state. 

In order to make a spiritual communication between 
the living and the dead possible, the mind of the living 
must be stimulated to an increased activity, and the 
communication to be received must be slowed down un- 
til a state of vibratory correspondence exists between 
the sending and the receiving mind. 

79. When we come into contact with an invisible 
or spiritual body, we are thrilled by the spiritual sense 
of touch, and every cell of our physical brain begins to 
vibrate with increased rapidity. And sometimes, when 
we possess a very finely adjusted physical intellect, this 
organ reaches a rate of vibration that is in tune with 
spiritual matter, and we enter into harmonious rapport 
and communication with the spiritual world, or with 
such life from that plane as happens to be keyed to the 
same rate of vibration as that to which we have attained. 

80. There are two principal reasons why all spirit- 
ual communications are fragmentary, or in pieces. The 
one reason is, that the communicating spirit-life has 
difficulty in repressing or slowing down its thoughts 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 53 

sufficiently for us to record them; and the other reason 
is, that the recording spirit-life has difficulty in main- 
taining the intense mental activity necessary to the re- 
cording of such communications. 

81. While the spirit-life depends largely upon the 
physical brain to receive and to transmit impressions 
for it, yet this life has the ability to receive and to trans- 
mit impressions and knowledge independent of the phy- 
sical brain. When the spirit-life is especially highly de- 
veloped, its ability to receive and to transmit impres- 
sions and knowledge independent of the physical brain, 
reaches a point that is truly remarkable, and far be- 
yond the ability of any of our physical organs. 

The spirit-life can, and does, receive impressions and 
knowledge that are keyed to a higher rate of vibration 
than that of which the physical intellect is capable. It 
can, and does, mount far above the physical intellect, in 
its ability to grasp and to translate rapidly vibrating 
spiritual impressions, communications and knowledge. 

It is in the higher rates of vibration per second that 
the spirit-life is especially apt, and able to transcend 
that of the physical intellect. 

The ability of the spirit-life to receive and to trans- 
late rapidly vibrating spiritual impressions and know- 
ledge is limited only to the height that it has attained 
in its development, and in any case transcends that of 
the physical mind many times. 

82. The human intellect is capable of receiving 
communications from the first spiritual zone only. All 



54 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

spiritual communications from the higher spiritual zones 
must be received by the spirit-life direct, and be trans- 
mitted by it to the intellect. 

Spirit-lives that are highly developed may receive 
direct spiritual communications coming from the second 
and third spiritual zones, but from beyond the third 
zone they can not. They must depend for further in- 
formation upon relayed messages; that is, upon mes- 
sages that have been received by at least one or more 
spiritual entities while enroute, and have been re-trans- 
mitted by these entities until they have come into vibra- 
tory harmony with some human receiving station, or 
life. 

83. Spiritual communications arriving from the 
higher spiritual zones reach us clairaudiently. Those 
from the lower spiritual zones reach us clairvoyantly. 
In other words, communications coming from the high- 
er spiritual zones reach us as though spoken to us, and 
those from the lower zones reach us as symbols and 
pictures, which are made manifest to us through the 
spiritual sense of sight. 

84. There are many things that are inexpress- 
ible. Especially is this true when that which we wish 
to express is beyond the experience of living men. In 
the spiritual world man has not passed beyond the first 
spiritual zone, or that zone in which he has frequently 
been cast by death, and knows not what is beyond. 

He who is able to get into rapport and communica- 
tion with the second spiritual zone, of the spiritual 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 55 

world, is confronted with many things that he does not 
understand, that have not entered into any of the ex- 
periences of his former lives, and therefore are inex- 
pressible. 

Communication with the second and higher spiritual 
zones is not all that is necessary. We must be able to 
grasp, to understand, to translate and to express in 
human language, that which an attempt is being made 
to communicate to us. In this we can not succeed en- 
tirely at first; and only after prolonged efforts and re- 
peated failures, can we succeed at all. 

In order that we may get in communication with the 
second and higher spiritual zones, it is necessary that 
we have completed our spiritual development in human 
form, and are in vibratory rapport with the second and 
higher spiritual zones. 

Having passed to physical completion, and entered 
into rapport and communication with the second and 
higher spiritual zones, we find ourselves in a world of 
which we know nothing — a world that is governed by 
many laws which are new to us. 

The laws of the second and higher spiritual zones, 
however, are not all new, because some of these laws 
are but the continuation of laws which we have known 
on this earth plane; and it is because of these laws 
which we have known that we are able to eventually 
understand. 

Having grasped a limited knowledge of the second 
and higher spiritual zones through the laws of which we 
know, we proceed to study these laws in connection with 



56 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

the other laws of which we know nothing, and succeed 
in grasping an idea of them. In this way wie advance 
slowly but surely upward, and eventually arrive at an 
ability to understand, and to express, and even to con- 
vey to those who as yet know nothing, some faint though 
doubtless imperfect idea of the second and higher spirit- 
ual zones. 

85. The senses of those of the spiritual world 
have a wide and ever widening range of perception; 
a sense of perception that includes the physical, coars- 
er, and therefore slowly vibrating materials of the low- 
er worlds, as well as those of the higher and spiritual 
worlds from which they are apart. But this sense of 
perception does not exceed that of the height to which 
the spirit-life has attained in its spiritual development, 
and is therefore limited on the upward rather than on 
the downward scale. 

While a disembodied spirit-life sees us as a spirit, 
yet it is also conscious of the coarser and therefore phys- 
ical body, and is not deceived as to which world of 
life we belong, or as to the world in which we are for 
the moment to be found. 

The spirit-lives of the spiritual worlds are able to get 
in touch with the physical world, and to receive from the 
physical world such information as they may desire, 
yet their interests are no longer of the physical world, 
and what interests they may have had grow less as they 
evolve higher and higher in the scale of spiritual de- 
velopment, and advance further and further into the 
realms of the spiritual worlds. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 57 

86. We seldom receive messages from spirit- 
lives that departed this earth life a hundred or more 
years ago, because all such spirit-lives have either again 
returned to earth to complete their evolution, or have 
attained to a point in the spiritual world from which they 
are not likely to communicate with us. 

87. Some spirit-lives of the spiritual world may 
desire to establish their identity, and to prove to some 
of their earth friends that they still exist. But most 
spirit-lives have no such desire, and never seek to com- 
municate with us unless they have something of import- 
ance to say to us. 

Most spirit-lives of the spiritual universe, and es- 
pecially those that have attained to a high point in 
their spiritual development, do not deal in trivials, nor 
descend to earth to convey to us the information that 
two and two equal four. Rather, they are interested 
only in the vital things of life, and convey to us only 
such information and knowledge as is, in some way, 
important to us, or to the world. 

Most highly developed spirit-lives of the spiritual 
universe prefer to convey their communications direct 
to the person most interested. And most often they do 
this without disclosing their identity, or revealing the 
fact that the information conveyed is of a super-phys- 
ical origin. 

We often think that we have made a wonderful dis- 
covery, or conceived a remarkable truth, when the dis- 
covery we have made, or the truth that we have con- 
ceived, has been conveyed to us by, and is the property 



58 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

of, some highly developed spirit-life of the spiritual uni- 
verse. 

88. All things come to us by a slow awakening; 
by a transcending of ourselves, an unfolding, a coming 
out of ourselves into a knowledge of ourselves and life. 
And if we suddenly become conscious of some truth, it 
is not that the truth has come to us suddenly, but that 
we have suddenly become aware of its presence. 

Many truths that are plainly visible within the hori- 
zon of our present spiritual development are still un- 
observed by us, and any of these truths may suddenly 
be discovered by us, or revealed to us by the invisible 
and spiritual life with which we are surrounded. 

89. We are all musical instruments keyed to re- 
ceive certain vibrations, ranging from the animal phys- 
ical to the super-spiritual. And these vibrations, to 
which we are attuned, convey to us information and 
knowledge that is denied to those who are not keyed 
to our rate of vibration, or who, in other words, are 
differently developed. 

Much of that which we assume we know we must 
accept on faith, or else wait for that knowledge until 
we have evolved sufficiently to include that knowledge 
within the range of our vibratory perception. 

There are those among us who are in tune with the 
spiritual; that is, who have developed sufficiently to 
have attained to spiritual knowledge and perception. 
And we must accept what these individuals have to say 
to us as true, or else we must remain in ignorance until 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 59> 

we have attained to the same rate of vibratory percep- 
tion to which they have attained. 

Each man who with sincerity reports anything to us 
deserves to be believed; but only those who have at- 
tained the highest possible points in spiritual develop- 
ment are in position to convey to us anything like an 
accurate knowledge of things spiritual. 

90. Spirit-lives of the first spiritual zone possess 
comparatively little spiritual information and knowledge 
that is remarkable. This regarding the first spiritual 
zone is also true to a less degree of the second and third 
spiritual zones. Yet, when we come into communica- 
tion with the second spiritual zone, we suddenly sit up 
and take notice, because some of the messages that come 
to us from this zone are remarkable, and contain in- 
formation that is of vital importance to the human race. 

It is not from 1 the living that we learn the secrets 
of life, but from the dead ; from those who have passed 
over into the spiritual world, and who, having attained 
to a high point in their spiritual development in this 
new world, are able to see clearly, and to understand, 
and to convey some small part of their knowledge to a 
few highly developed spirit-lives in human form who 
have especially sensitive intellects. 

91. The spiritual is merely a continuation of the 
natural beyond the point where we have a sufficient 
acquaintance with it to fully understand. It is merely 
the natural after the natural has reached a vibratory re- 



60 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

finement and development beyond that of the human and 
the visible. 

92. Spirit-lives of the first zone possess but a very 
imperfect and indefinite memory of their former selves. 
Yet this memory improves and becomes more perfect 
as they evolve and attain to the higher spiritual zones. 

93. We are able to sense or to feel the presence 
and influence of those who are keyed to the same rate 
of vibration as ourselves and to sense and feel their 
presence and influence on that plane of life on which 
they are in tune with us ; be this the physical, the men- 
tal, or the spiritual plane. 

94. All life, when it leaves its physical material 
abode at death, whether it be of the mineral, the vege- 
table, or the animal kingdom, enters into the first spirit- 
ual zone, there to await its reincarnation in some other 
physical material form, in accordance with the laws of 
nature. 

The first spiritual zone is so nearly earth-like in ap- 
pearance, due to the presence of all kinds of disembodied 
life, that some spirit-lives are not at first conscious of 
the fact that they have passed over into a new world of 
life. 

In the first spiritual zone there is mineral life as 
natural as that of the mineral in the physical material 
world, and vegetable life, and the life of all the differ- 
ent animals, including that of man. 

The first spiritual zone is largely a receiving zone 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 61 

for earth bound life, though there is much life here that 
has attained to a sufficient vitality, strength and spiritual 
development to proceed upward toward and into the 
second spiritual zone. 

95. There are spirit-lives in the fiirst (Spiritual 
zone that have a morbid desire and curiosity to wit- 
ness human sorrow, suffering, and even tragedy and 
death; and these diseased spirit-lives are often found 
in homes of sorrow and tragedy, and in homes toward 
which these evils are approaching. 

I have on a number of occasions observed one or 
more of these spirit-lives in homes of sorrow, and have 
on a number of other occasions been able even to for- 
see the approach of a tragedy within a home by having 
observed the presence of one or more of these spirit- 
lives. Yet I do not fully understand these lives. How- 
ever, I know that they are earth bound spirits of a very 
low order, who in their former life committed some pe- 
culiarly atrocious crime, or caused great human suffer- 
ing to some one, and who therefore have a morbid curi- 
osity to study the things that caused their downfall, 
and delayed them in their spiritual development. 

These sorrow loving or morbidly curious spirit-lives 
of the first spiritual zone, or rather those that I have 
had an occasion to observe, were quiet, silent, unob- 
trusive, dark and brooding spiritual entities, clothed in 
raiment of the darker shades, resemblling black and 
brown intermingled. 

96. The spirit-lives of the first spiritual zone are 
able to foresee events that are approaching us, and can 



%2 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL* KNOWLEDGE 

on occasions convey to us some inkling of their approach. 
But these spirit-lives have no power to prevent the 
happening of that which is to be. 

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. 
Much depends upon whether that which is to happen 
to us is the result of the violation of some of nature's 
laws, or whether the danger that is approaching is com- 
ing from a source that is outside us and within the 
realm of the merely chance happenings of life. 

In the latter case we may be saved, if we receive the 
warning in time, and act upon it. 

97. There is the division of sex in the spiritual 
world, and among the spiritual creatures who have come 
up from this earthland, and from the other physical ma- 
terial worlds that dot the surface of the spiritual uni- 
verse. And this division of sex is of a positive and 
negative nature, like electricity, and has to do with the 
generating of vitality, light, heat, and various other 
things in connection with the life of a spirit-life and 
body. 

The operation of this law of sex, which brings two 
spirit-lives together, as positive and negative vital forces 
in life, produces that condition known on this earthland 
as love, or sex affinity, with the exception that in the 
spiritual universe this love, or sex affinity, is free from 
the desire for personal touch, from passion, lust, and all 
the other things that tend to mar love on this earth- 
land of ours. 

The selection and union, in the spiritual world, of 
positive and negative spirit-lives, through the opera- 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 63 

tion of sex affinity or love, is brought about in part by 
the law of vibratory correspondence, which declares 
that only elements or lives attuned to the same number 
of vibrations per second can unite and become as one. 

In the spiritual world, and throughout the spiritual 
universe, as well as here in this earthland, there are sex, 
and sex affinity, and love between different spirit-lives, 
and marriage, and all that goes to make up a perfect 
union and happiness, except that which must yet be 
attained through a higher state of spiritual develop- 
ment, and a transportation to higher spiritual zones. 

98. The approach to the spiritual world is closely 
guarded, extremely so, as I have recently discovered, 
and when you are not in rapport with the higher spirit- 
ual entities you are in extreme danger of coming in con- 
tact with spirit-lives of a much lower order, some of 
which have all the appearance of being demented. 

I have recently, while in the midst of receiving beau- 
tiful thought impressions and information from the 
spiritual world, come suddenly in contact With malicious 
and evil influences and spirit-lives, and have been 
greatly frightened, and forced to draw back with all 
the caution of one who momentarily expects an attack. 
And I would warn you, one and all, of the dangers of 
approaching the spiritual world — even if you are able 
to do so — until you have made long and special prep- 
aration; for there is danger here of a nature which you 
do not understand, and of which I am not able as yet 
to fully inform you. 



64 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

99. There are no secrets in the spiritual world, 
for in the spiritual world all things are more nearly 
transparent; and thoughts, feelings, emotions and de- 
sires have form and shape and color, and are perceiv- 
able by the spirit-life of the different spiritual zones. 

In fact there are no secrets in this earth life of ours, 
except only in so far as we are too stupid to perceive 
them, or to grasp and understand them. 

To a superior intellect there are no secrets in the 
physical material world; and to a spirit-life that has 
attained to a high state of spiritual development on the 
other side of life, all our secrets are revealed. 

100. Spirit-lives are sensitive to thought for- 
mations, and respond instinctively to such thought de- 
sires as reach their sphere or zone of life. The spirit- 
lives of the first spiritual zone are sufficiently near to 
the physical material world — in their vibratory corres- 
pondence — that they are influenced by every thought 
that is thought of them, or about them. 

When we persistently cling to our departed loved 
ones in our thought, and will not let them go, we tend 
to retard them in their spiritual development, and to 
hold them near to us. By so doing we do them harm, 
and produce a condition that is temporarily fatal, either 
to their development, or to our physical material exist- 
ence. 

When we retard the development of spirit-lives that 
are in the first spiritual zone by persistently holding 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 65 

them near to us through our thought, we produce a 
condition that tends to unhappiness, and that finally re- 
sults either in their breaking this tie that binds them, or 
in their pulling us over to their side of life. 

101. All material, be it spiritual or physical, is 
transparent to spiritual vision. That is, it can be seen 
through. 

Each particle of physical material is sufficiently sep- 
arated from each and every other particle of physical 
material that, to the perception of those spirit-lives that 
have attained to the other side, physical material as a 
solid does not exist, but is seen as a cluster or number 
of physical material particles or atoms, that are held 
more or less closely together by the law of affinity, and 
the law of vibratory activity. And between each of 
these different particles of physical material there exists 
a space that is sufficiently large for a spirit-life to see, or 
to pass through. 

102. The human body is composed largely of 
water and gases — of substances of which the different 
particles are widely separated; and so the human body, 
and all physical bodies that contain life, appear to the 
spiritual perception much as a phantom appears to us. 
That is, vaguely, indefinitely, not so clearly as most 
physical material substances appear. 

103. There are zones in the physical human world 
as well as in the spiritual world, and each of these zones 
is set off from the others by boundary lines that are in- 



66 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

visible. The boundary lines of each of these physical 
human zones are composed of human experience, know* 
ledge, perception, grasp; spiritual, physical and mental 
development; and many other things besides. 

Some human spirit-lives spend all of one lifetime 
within the boundaries of one of these physical human 
zones, while other spirit-lives traverse in one lifetime 
all of the physical human zones, and arrive at death at 
a point in their development from which it will not be 
necessary for them to return again in human form to 
the physical material world. 

Each species of life represents a zone, and each zone 
is divided into a number of other zones, representing the 
different stages of development of the life of that species. 

104. Sounds are closely related to the physical 
material, and do not exist, in the sense in which we know 
sounds, in the more rarefied atmospheres of the spiritual 
worlds above that of the first spiritual zone. 

All spiritual zones above the first are filled with an 
eternal silence, in a physical sense. Yet in these zones 
there are sounds, and continuous melodies, and the sweet- 
est music, but not attuned to the physical ear, nor to the 
ear that has not attained to the spiritual refinement of the 
sphere in which the sounds exist. 

In fact, there are sounds and melodies in the physical 
material worlds that are not attuned to the physical ear, 
and are heard only by the spirit-lives of the first spirit- 
ual zone, and occasionally by some one in human form 
who spiritually is highly developed. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 67 

All nature is attuned to music, and each separate 
thing in nature has its own melody which it prefers to 
render. 

Silence is merely sound that has reached a spiritual 
refinement; sound that is not heard except by a life of 
the same vibratory refinement as that of the sound that 
is heard through the silence — through that which to all 
others is silence. 

105. The physical body that contains our spirit 
body, and our spirit-life, and all the elements from which 
other physical bodies are produced, is composed largely 
of air, water and gases, intermingled and woven to- 
gether by an intelligence that is concealed in nature, and 
that is working through the electro-magnetic and vito- 
chemical life elements within us. However the spirit- 
life, which is us, also plays its part in the modeling and 
the fashioning of the physical body that is to contain it, 
and also those physical bodies that are to contain other 
spirit-lives that are journeying toward our earthland. 

We have much to do With preparing the physical 
houses for the spirit-lives that are coming toward us; 
but these spirit-lives, through a law in nature, choose 
the avenue through which each shall enter the physical 
world. 

We assume that we create the life that is given birth 
through us, but that life was created a hundred thous- 
and centuries or more back, and has been evolving to- 
ward completion through all these years, even as we are 
evolving toward completion. 



68 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

The spirit-life that enters the physical world through 
a physical body of our creation does so through the law 
of attraction and selection, and of vibratory correspon- 
dence, and therefore must of necessity be in some way 
like us. 

We do not give life, but we prepare the way for the 
life that is evolving toward us, and build the houses in 
which this life shall enter, and for a few brief years 
dwell. 

106. Intense activity upon every plane of life, 
and especially on the spiritual plane, tends to harmony, 
and produces a state of rest, or rather a state of ease 
that greatly resembles rest, and that is very soothing 
and elevating. 

107. No spirit-life that is in human form can 
enter the second and higher spiritual zones, yet actual 
scenes from within these zones are sometimes flashed to 
us in moments of illumination. 

In such moments we sometimes catch glimpses of 
landscapes, plants, flowers, rivers, lakes and various 
other things that are of the second and higher spiritual 
zones. 

The flowers of the second spiritual zone are beautiful, 
and in some respects resemble those of the earth plane, 
from which they may have come through having attain- 
ed their physical completion. 

I know not from whence these flowers of the second 
spiritual zone have come, but I know that the few varie- 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 69 

ties which it has been my pleasure to observe are very 
beautiful, with a delicate, spirit-like beauty that is not 
in form, nor shape, nor color, and that can not be des- 
cribed in words. 

Unless the spiritual world has been illuminated for 
you, and you have caught a few glimpses of its land- 
scapes, flowers, foliage and other life thereon, it is use- 
less for me to continue; for I can bring to you no des- 
cription that you will understand, or that will convey to 
you any impression whatever. 

The flowers of the second spiritual zone do not grow 
in such profusion that they get in the way, and must be 
stepped upon. Rather, flowers are more rare in the sec- 
ond spiritual zone than here, and seem to have been 
planted and cared for with more love and devotion than 
is usually bestowed upon flowers, at least upon this earth 
plane of ours. 

Among the flowers of the second spiritual zone there 
are some in shades and colors that are entirely unknown 
to me, some in shades and colors that I have never ob- 
served before, and know do not exist in the physical 
material world. 

108. That which the intellect perceives in the 
physical world as law reveals itself to the spiritual ear as 
harmony, melody; and the spirit-life is guided toward 
the truth of things spiritual by keeping in tune with the 
harmonies of the spheres, or in other words, with such 
musical sounds as register on the spiritual ear. 



70 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

We are guided along the way by melodies that grow 
sweeter and more sublime the nearer we approach their 
source — the higher spiritual planes of life. 

109. The completion of each individual life on 
each and every plane of life, through a refining, an ele- 
vating, and a making more vital and perfect, is the aim 
and the goal of all the activities of nature. 

110. The physical material universe is of no great 
importance in the scheme of things. It is not necessary 
to life, but only to the maintainance of a certain kind of 
life. 

This universe could be blotted out of existence today 
and nothing would be lost. Not an atom of the invisible 
elements of which the physical material universe is com- 
posed would be in any way harmed or destroyed ; and all 
could be reassembled, reformed, recreated, or made new. 
Such a vast change has come to pass many times in the 
history of the physical material universe. 

If the physical material world, of which we know, 
were to be destroyed today, and to be reformed and made 
new, perhaps the world that would replace it, or be made 
out of it, would be a much superior world to the one of 
which we know. 

Nothing would be required in this reformation ex- 
cept a little time — a few thousand centuries; which, 
compared to all eternity, is not so long as one second 
of our time compared to the length of any one of our 
physical lives. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 71 

111. The world in which we live is still at the be- 
ginning of its history, though it is many millions of years 
older than most of us have any idea, or suspect. 

Man appeared on this planet only yesterday, and to- 
morrow man will have disappeared, for the successor of 
this very remarkable species is on its way. 

Some there are who think that in man physical na- 
ture has reached her highest point, and that nothing 
superior to man is to be expected, or is possible. But 
in this, the successor to the human species being on its 
way, they are mistaken. 

112. Everything that belongs to the spiritual 
world, and that contains supernatural beauty, lies con- 
cealed behind the invisible. And the invisible is the 
spiritual. 

113. The spiritual world coexists with the physi- 
cal world, and the universe. It is within, and around, 
and about, and intermingled with, all physical matter. 

114. The spiritual world is a world that is seeth- 
ing and teeming with life and activity. Intense activity 
is going on there, as well as here, though the activity 
of the spiritual world is directed more toward the beau- 
tiful, and less toward that which we call the practical, 
than is the activity of this earthland. 

To one who has observed this ceaseless activity of 
the spiritual world, the unpracticality of the practical 
becomes more and more apparent, and he is forced to 



72 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

the conclusion that the real business of life is just to 
live; to get out of each successive life the most pos- 
sible good — that is, beauty and development. 

115. The spiritual world is a world of refined 
matter that is not sufficiently condensed or compact to 
be seen with the physical eye. It is a world of life that 
is vibrating at a rate of vibration per second that is be- 
yond that which the physical eye can register. Because 
this is so, many men in their ignorance assume that the 
spiritual world does not exist; that it is all a delusion, 
and that nothing is real that does not happen to fall 
within the narrow range of their limited faeulities, or 
senses. 

116. The invisible and spiritual world, of which 
I speak, is that world of space that encircles all the 
worlds we know, and many that we have not yet discov- 
ered. And so vast is the distance across this invisible 
world that our world appears as a mere speck upon its 
surface. Viewed from the distance of less than a 
thousandth part of the circumference of this invisible 
world, many of our worlds disappear entirely. Yet this 
invisible spirit world, of which we know, is but one of 
an innumerable number of such worlds, through which 
we shall pass on our road to perfection. 

Some there are who are blind, and who therefore 
do not see this spiritual world. And some that see and 
are afraid, lest this world do them harm. Others wel- 
come with open arms this invisible world and all the 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 73 

invisible life of the universe, and strive to learn from 
each of these worlds, and from each life, how best to 
live — how best to attain their spiritual development the 
most rapidly, and thereby a place in the spiritual world. 

The spiritual world is a world that contains on its 
surface a number of egg-shaped hatcheries, called 
"earths, or stare," in which life is being generated, 
evolved and made ready to live. 

117. If you would visit the spiritual world, you 
must do so through the subsconcious life, which is the 
life of the spirit. You must go from within out. That 
is, you must leave your physical body behind and act- 
ually enter the spiritual world, as one who has a right 
to enter. You may be able to do this, and you may not. 
All depends upon your knowledge of things occult, and 
upon the point to which you have attained in your spirit- 
ual development. 

The world of the spirit and the world of the physical 
body intermingle and interpenetrate each other in what 
is known as the first spiritual zone; and you should be 
able, while still living in a physical body, to withdraw 
from this body for brief periods of time and enter into 
the first spiritual zone. 

118. Just as the spirit-life in the early stages of 
its development in the physical world is forced to rapid- 
ly change its physical material abode and pass rapidly 
through many births and deaths, so does the spirit-life, 
upon its entrance into the spiritual world, find that it 



74 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

must pass rapidly through many changes before it can 
be certain that it will not have to return to earth to 
complete its development, or to secure a little more 
spiritual vitality. 

The spirit-life's ability to remain in the spiritual 
world depends entirely upon its vitality; depends entire- 
ly upon whether it can be depended upon to continue 
its journey without the protection of a physical body and 
a physically constructed intellect. 

I might add in this connection, that mentality is in 
some mysterious way closely connected with the develop- 
ment of the inner or spirit-life. And the more we cul- 
tivate and strengthen ourselves in this life, on the side 
of our intellect, the more and better equipped we are 
for the struggle that awaits us on the other side. 

The life is in the mentality. It is in the uniting and 
the blending of the spiritual and the physical mentality 
that we approach most near to the spiritual world. And 
those spirits on the other side who attained to a high 
state of both spiritual and mental development while 
here, are the best equipped for their journey over there. 

119. All life is spirit. Spirit-life is the only kind 
of life there is in the universe, except the life of the 
different physical material forms or bodies that contain 
spirit-life. And these physical material forms or bodies 
have no life, except when they are in contact with spirit - 
life as a life giving or generating force. 

All life is spirit. And the life that is in man is a 
child life ; is a life that is still in the infant or childhood 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 75 

period of its development. Though this life that is in 
man has been in course of evolution from the remotest 
period of time, yet it has only obtained in the most highly 
developed — in those who are about to depart this life to 
return in physical form no more — a state of development 
that corresponds to the physical life of a child of seven 
to eleven years of age. 

There are no matured spirit-lives in human form; 
no spirits that have attained to maturity either in this 
world nor in the first spiritual zone. 

The minute that a spirit-life has reached a spiritual 
development where a physically constructed body and 
intellect are no longer necessary to its development, it is 
transferred to the spiritual world. 

120. Do not imagine that you live in the phys- 
ical world. You only inhabit this world, and that in an 
imperfect way. 

All your senses fail you. You do not catch the 
sweetest melodies that are wafted to you on the wings 
of silence — melodies that come to you from each and 
every separate thing in nature. Nor do you behold the 
beauties of nature that are about you except imperfectly, 
and with the eye of the camera, the telescope, the micro- 
scope, the x-ray and various other mechanical con- 
trivances that have been suggested to you, and built for 
you, by those who have followed the suggestions and ad- 
vice of spiritual entities of the higher spiritual worlds 
and zones. 



76 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

If you had the eye of a camera, you might enjoy the 
beautiful and the various designs of a snowflake or an 
ice crystal. And if this eye had the power of the x-ray, 
you might see through many physical material solids, 
even as these are seen through by the x-ray, and by 
those spiritual entities who have attained to the spiritual 
world. 

121. Those who have not yet attained to the 
spiritual plane of life may believe in the spiritual, and 
in the spiritual world, but they can not possess any 
exact and personal knowledge of the spiritual, and of 
the spiritual world, until they have attained to the spirit- 
ual plane of life. 

Exact knowledge of the spiritual world is possessed 
by but few, and those few are nearly all masters and 
seers, though some of them are persons who are nearing 
completion on the spiritual mental plane of life. 

The amount of knowledge of things spiritual that 
we may possess depends upon our development, and 
does not in any case extend beyond the first and second 
spiritual zones. 

122. Life is an illuminated substance. It is a 
substance that gives off light. And the more highly de- 
veloped a life is, the greater is the amount of light that 
the life gives off, and the more brilliant is this light un- 
til — in cases of highly developed spirit-lives of the spirit- 
ual universe — this light reaches a brilliancy that is un- 
endurable to physical vision, and therefore blinding to 
those of us who are of this earth plane. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 77 

A spirit-life, in all the early stages of its develop- 
ment is a mere speck of light, round or somewhat oval 
in shape, and no larger than a pin-point — usually not so 
large. And this is true even of at least some of the life 
that has attained to a considerable distance on its road 
to completion. 

123. There is nothing that can be conceived or 
imagined that does not already exist in the unseen and 
spiritual world. 

124. We arrive in the next life in exactly the 
same state of mind as that in which we pass over; in a 
confused state, in a clear state, in a clouded state, in- a de- 
mented state, or in any other state in which we hap- 
pen to be at the moment of our departure. However, 
we soon recover our natural and a healthful state of 
mind over there, and are once more contented and 
happy. 

An illness may extend beyond the grave for a per- 
iod upward toward sixty days, but the usual period is 
about thirty days. In many cases it consists of nothing 
but a profound sleep. 

We are all met at the gateway of this new life and 
escorted beyond the boundary, and are given such care 
as is necessary to our recovery. 

Blessed are those who suffer no illness nor confu- 
sion in passing over, but who enter this new world in a 
perfectly clear and happy state of mind. 



78 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

125. There are a sufficient number of invisible 
particles of physical material floating about in any room 
or locality to make a visible body for any spiritual entity 
that may take the trouble to gather these particles, and 
to arrange them according to the desired design that 
it may wish to produce. 

These invisible particles of physical material are 
often spoken of as dust particles, and they are in suffi- 
cient quantity everywhere that they may be used by any 
spiritual entity to make itself manifest to those of us 
who lack sufficient spiritual perception to behold a spirit- 
ual entity in its more refined and spiritual material body. 
However, most spirit-lives that desire to appear to us 
prefer illuminable gases to dust particles, and so when 
we lack sufficient development to perceive them in their 
natural form they most often make use of these gases. 

The most natural way for a spiritual entity, phantom, 
or so called ghost to make itself visible to those of us 
who are in position to receive spiritual impressions, is 
by way of the mental world and in thought form; by 
way of causing us to see, feel or hear them through 
the stimulating of the right nerve cells within our minds. 

There are two kinds of haunts, by the way; those 
that are on the mental plane and of the physical world, 
and those that are from the other side of life. 

126. All haunts of an evil order make themselves 
manifest to us through the medium of darkness, be- 
cause darkness is more in harmony with their rate of 
spiritual vibration than is light. 



PERTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 79 

Ghosts or haunts that belong to a certain plane of 
life, or number of vibrations per second, may be seen by 
animals ; especially by those animals that see well at 
night, because it is by night that ghosts of this particular 
land are to be seen. 

127. The dead can be and are around you just 
as much in the light as in the dark. However, they are 
slightly more able to make themselves visible to you 
through a medium of light that has been reduced to a 
certain number of vibrations per second. 

The number of light vibrations necessary for a 
spirit-life to make itself visible varies and changes with 
the growth and development of each individual spirit- 
life. 

The lower in the scale of spiritual development a 
spirit-life is, the more slowly do the different mole- 
cules of its spirit body and life vibrate, and the darker 
must be the medium through which it is the most able to 
make itself visible. 

The highly developed spirit-lives of the spiritual 
worlds do not need the presence of darkness in which 
to make themselves visible, but all the lower life of 
these worlds finds the presence of darkness in some form 
a necessity. 

128. Darkness, in a physical sense, reaches a 
density and a thickness that is unknown to the spiritual 
worlds — even unknown in the first spiritual zone — that 
zone which is known as the dark zone of the spiritual 



80 FRAGMENTS OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 

worlds. On the other hand, light in the spiritual world 
reaches a brilliancy that is inconceivable to physical life, 
and many times greater than that which the physical 
eye can register. 

As we advance toward the spiritual worlds, we ad- 
vance toward the light, and away from the dark, and 
each zone in which we find ourselves is lighter than the 
zone that preceded it. This state of increasing light 
continues throughout all the zones of the first spiritual 
world, or until this light reaches a vibratory activity 
that is in harmony with the light of each spiritual zone 
of the second spiritual world. 

129. Time in the spiritual world is not measured 
by years, nor by the rising and setting of suns, but by 
events, by evolution ; by the attaining of some point 
higher in the scale of spiritual development. 

In reality, time in the spiritual world is as if it were 
not. It has no beginning nor ending, and therefore no 
accurate record is kept of it. Yet each spirit-life lives 
as if it had but a few brief hours in which to attain com- 
pletion; lives a life of intense activity and ceaseless ef- 
fort. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

Thoughts on the Evolution of Spirit-Life 
and Various Other Subjects. 




BY 
BENJAMIN F.* WOODCOX 

Author of 

'Thoughts About Love, and Other Thoughts. 

"In Cupid's Chains, and Other Poems." 



WOODCOX & FANNER 

Publishers 

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 



Copyright, 1921, by 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WOODCOX 



ELLIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 

PRINTERS 

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 



THE law of spiritual evolution seems to be 
the most important thing that this book 
suggests. But there are two other things 
of nearly equal importance with spiritual evolu- 
tion, to my way of thinking, suggested herein. 
The one is the discovery that all life is spirit; is 
spirit-life, and the other is the suggestion that 
nature is the only bible that has any vestige of 
authority in the universe, and the book to which 
we should go for religious guidance. 

C. H. F. 



/ am the Message that Nature brings 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 



1. All life is spirit; is spirit-life. And all spirit- 
life is in course of evolution through enumerable forms 
and changes and lives until it reaches and passes 
through the human form and continues its evolution 
without the aid of a material body. 

2. The evolution of spirit-life takes place under 
what is known as the law of Spiritual Evolution. And 
the law of Spiritual Evolution is a very simple law, 
and one that can be easily understood and explained. 

3. We can easily understand how the tiny spark 
of life, or spirit, implanted by the Creator in the most 
simple material form can grow, or evolve, and can be 
transplanted as it grows from one material body to 
another until it becomes the complex spirit of man, 
or rather the complex spirit that inhabits the material 
form or body that we call man. And we can further 
understand how this spirit that is in man may con- 
tinue to grow, or evolve until it has become sufficiently 
strong, or full of vitality or life to no longer need the 
protection of a material body, but can continue its 
evolution without this material hindrance. And it is 
still possible for us to further understand how this 
spirit that is now free from a material body, can con. 



6 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

tinue to evolve until it arrives in the presence of its 
God; until it becomes like unto the God who gave it 
birth and started it on its evolutionary journey. 

4. The law of Spiritual Evolution enlightens. It 
helps us to understand the Christian religion, and all 
other religions. 

5. Under the law of Spiritual Evolution it is easy 
to find an explanation for everything, even for things 
of the most trivial nature. 

6. The law of Spiritual Evolution agrees with all 
that science has discovered, or will discover. It is 
one of the universal laws like the law of Gravitation. 
That is, the law of Spiritual Evolution admits of no ex- 
ceptions. And no religion is, or can be true that is not 
in harmony with spiritual evolution. No religion can 
be true that is out of harmony with the law of spirit- 
ual growth or development. 

7. The law of Spiritual Evolution unites all re- 
ligions. Discloses the fact that all religions are but 
one religion that is differently interpreted and under- 
stood by different people and by different persons of 
the same belief who are differently enlightened or 
spiritually developed. 

8. As the spirit-life evolves, the law of Spiritual 
Evolution becomes more and more complex. First, 
there enters into Spiritual Evolution the law "Love." 
And this law at once becomes an essential to the 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 7 

further evolution of spirit-life. A little later the law 
"Faith" appears and begins to play its part in spirit- 
ual evolution. And long before the spirit-life has 
evolved sufficiently to appear in human form it has 
become a rather complex spark of life, and may be said 
to be religious. But not until this spark of life — this 
spirit — has entered human form, and has developed a 
rather high state of self -consciousness, does the law of 
Right and Wrong become an important factor in 
spiritual evolution. 

9. The minute that we become sufficiently self- 
conscious to come under the operation of the law of 
Right and Wrong, we begin the battle that is to de- 
cide our future evolution; we begin the battle that is 
to decide how slowly, or how rapidly we shall evolve 
toward the divine. 

10. Spiritual, — or self-consciousness begins back 
at the beginning of life and proceeds upward by a slow 
unfolding, an evolution. 

11. Spiritual, — or self -consciousness is attained 
with infinite slowness. Not until the spirit-life has 
been evolving for thousands of centuries does it attain 
sufficient self-consciousness to distinguish between the 
right and the wrong. Not until the spirit-life has been 
evolving for thousands of centuries is it sufficiently 
developed to work out its own destiny ; is it sufficiently 
developed to no longer need the hand that has guided 
it through all the early stages of its evolution. 



8 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

12. First the spirit-life becomes conscious of its 
environment, and as the spirit-life continues to evolve 
this consciousness increases until it includes a knowl- 
edge of everything human and divine. 

13. With increased consciousness comes enlight- 
enment, and knowledge, and understanding, and wis- 
dom; the ability to think, and to see, and know. 

14. That man whose consciousness is the most 
highly developed is the most close to the truth of 
things — is the most apt to be in the right. 

15. Most human spirits are just approaching the 
border of self-consciousness — are not yet conscious of 
one-thousandth part of their life, or of the lives of 
others, or of the beauty and the grandeur of life. 

16. Spiritual evolution is a slow unfolding attained 
through right living; through constantly holding the 
right attitude toward all life. 

17. Our spiritual development can be measured 
by the loftiness of our thought, and by the emotional 
depth of our feelings. 

18. That which does not help us in our spiritual 
evolution, does not help us. 

19. Our spiritual enlightenment and develop- 
ment, like our refinement and our culture, is per- 
fectly apparent to all who are in a position to observe 
it, or to understand it. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTIO 9 

20. The law of Spiritual Evolution leads us grad- 
ually to the truth through an enlightenment that is 
spiritual growth. 

21. Some human spirits have advanced sufficient- 
ly in their development to see into the heavens them- 
selves; have evolved sufficient spiritual vitality and 
perception to have a clear idea of what is in the be- 
yond. 

22. Under the law of Spiritual Evolution every 
virtue and every vice is accounted for, considered and 
weighed, and either helps us in our evolution or re- 
tards us in our spiritual growth. 

23. Most persons have not yet reached a stage in 
their spiritual evolution where freedom and leisure is 
of value to them — have not yet reached a stage in 
their development where they can use freedom and 
leisure to the best advantage. 

24. All things fade into each other, or are obtained 
through a gradual blending. 

25. Nothing in this world is finished. Everything 
is in course of being developed, or evolved, or per- 
fected. 

26. Evolution is the first aim of all life. Spiritual 
evolution first, and then mental and physical evolu- 
tion. 



10 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

27. We who are in human form have advanced far 
enough in our evolution to have attained self -con- 
sciousness. Have advanced far enough to be able to 
understand the difference between right and wrong, 
and to begin to see and to appreciate the beautiful and 
the good; but we have not yet advanced far enough 
for us to be completely, entirely wise, or just. 

28. As we mount higher and higher in the scale of 
spiritual evolution we become more and more in con- 
trol of our destiny. 

29. No religious theories, nor dogmas, nor creeds, 
are necessary to spiritual development. Just faith 
is all that is needed. Faith in some God that is more 
lofty and divine than we are. Just something to 
cause us to seek to become better than we are; to 
cause us to make an effort to evolve out of ourselves 
into something higher; something more like the faith 
that we hold. And if our faith is not lofty enough we 
need not fear for as we approach our faith, our faith 
will become more lofty, and will advance upward be- 
fore us, and lead us at last through spiritual evolution 
to the right God. 

Have faith in some God, and believe whatever you 
will, or can. All is well. Your faith will accomplish 
its purpose, and with that purpose accomplished, 
which is the evolution of your inner-life, will come a 
more enlightened faith, and a knowledge of the truth, 
which is also the good, and God. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 11 

30. Spirit-life makes use of material forms only 
until it has evolved, or generated sufficient strength 
and vitality and consciousness to no longer need the 
protection of a material body. 

31. Everything tends to prove that the inner, or 
spirit-life that is in man is still in its infancy though 
probably thousands of centuries old. 

32. Spirit-life is the electric spark which makes 
possible material or physical life. 

33. Without spirit-life there could be no material, 
or physical, or animal life. And this physical, or 
material, or animal life can not, in any case, survive 
the departure of the spirit-life within. 

34. Spirit-life has the ability to see a little way 
into the immediate future, just as the material eye 
has the ability to see a little way before and beyond it. 

35. Each spirit-life inhabits a material body that 
is capable of certain independent actions; a material 
body that was created in order to protect this spirit- 
life in the early stages of its development, or until it 
has evolved sufficient vitality, and strength and self- 
consciousness to no longer need such protection. 

36. Each physical or animal form contains two 
lives, each capable of certain independent actions. 
The one a spirit-life in course of evolution, and the 
other a material-life that may be destroyed in many 



12 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

different ways, and that can not in any case survive 
the departure of the spirit-life within it. 

37. All spirit-lives however highly developed or 
perfect must depend upon their material intellects to 
receive and to translate the impressions that are 
flashed to them out of the great beyond; and if these 
intellects are imperfect, or if they are not sufficiently 
sensitive to receive and to record the finest impressions 
and have not the ability to translate these impressions 
into language, then these spirits are not able to make 
known what they know and understand of the divine. 

38. Most human spirits are capable of receiving 
more information and knowledge and truth from the 
beyond than their intellects are capable of under- 
standing or of translating into language. 

39. Most human spirits know more of God and of 
the life beyond than they think they know ; than they 
have any self-consciousness of knowing. 

40. The spirit-life is able to leave its material 
abode for brief periods of time without endangering 
the life of that abode. 

41. Spirit-life often leaves its material abode and 
goes out to meet that which it desires if it desires it 
strongly. Often spirit-life goes out to meet love and 
friendship and beauty and other things that may help 
it in its development. However spirit-life never goes 
out to meet trivial things, nor worldly things, nor 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 13 

things that belong to the physical life. 

42. Spirit-life no longer takes an interest in its 
material body if that body is worn out, or diseased, or 
too old. In such cases the spirit-life waits to depart ; 
is willing to take unto itself another material form if 
it has not yet finished its journey here; that is has not 
yet evolved beyond the need of a material form. 

43. Some spirits are fettered; are retarded in 
their development by the physical forms or bodies 
which they inhabit, and to such spirits the parting 
or what we call: "Death," comes as a great blessing* 

44. All invisible spirit-lives that remain invisible 
to us are superior to us; have evolved above us, and 
have no further need of a material body, as we have. 

45. The invisible spirits are the superior spirits, 
and they may be around and about us without our 
knowledge. 

46. All spiritual communications must reach us 
through the harmony of silence, or the solitude of 
nature; must reach us when we are alone with God 
and all is still. 

47. Material sounds produce discords and inter- 
fere with what nature has to say. 

48. Material life is weak, is frail, is imperfect, and 
can easily be destroyed; and because this is so spirit- 
life is forced to frequently take its departure, and to 



14 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

occupy many different forms and shapes and material 
bodies in course of its evolution. 

49. All spirit-life seeks to conceal itself from all 
save those who are able to understand — seeks to 
conceal itself from all save those who have reached 
the same height in their development that it has 
reached. 

50. That spirit-life that can soar to the most 
lofty height, and there enter into and intermingle 
with the most lofty developed spirits, is itself highly 
developed, and has begun to blend gradually into that 
life that exists beyond the material plain. 

51. We can not counsel with our spirit-life upon 
anything but the important things of life. Such as 
the good, the beautiful, the true — spiritual things. 

If we seek to counsel our spirit-life on the trivial — 
the ordinary — things of life, it is silent — makes no 
answer — has nothing to say. 

52. The more highly developed we are spiritually 
the nearer our lives become a harmony, a poem, a 
song. 

53. Poets are spirits that are highly developed, 
and all spirits must some time become poets because 
all spirits will some time reach that stage in their 
development where all things are poetical; will reach 
that stage in their development where all is harmony 
and no discord can prevail. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 15 

54. Though all spirits will reach that stage in their 
development where all things are poetical, and will 
become poets, not all will give expression to the 
beauty and to the grandeur that will be theirs. 

55. Most spirits that are in human form are not 
sufficiently developed to live wisely — are not sufficient- 
ly developed to get the most out of life. 

56. Most spirits that are in human form possess 
but imperfectly developed consciousness — are yet 
far from the end of their journey in human form. 

57. To the spirit-life that has not yet reached a 
high state of development, the trivial things of life 
may appear great, and the great things of life may not 
appear at all. 

58. Each spirit-life must attain the same amount 
of development before it can cross the bridge into the 
land where no material bodies are to be found, or are 
necessary. 

59. Spirit-life never sleeps. Only the physica 
mind sleeps. And during the slumber of the physi 
cal mind the spirit-life often leaves its material abode 
for brief periods of time; often leaves its material 
abode and goes forth into the spiritual world to visit 
and to learn much that it should know. 

60. Spirit-life knows no rest, nor seeks any, nor 
desires any until it has completed its journey. But. 



16 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

when spirit-life is retarded in its development — when 
it is held back because it is out of harmony with the 
good — it grows restless and suffers much anxiety. 

61. Not all human spirits understand the law of 
Spiritual Evolution. 

62. The spirit-life that is in man is related to the 
spirit-life that is in the flower, or in the tree, and when 
man observes the beauty of these it is their inner — or 
spirit-beauty that he most often observes. It is their 
inner — or spirit-beauty that most often astonishes 
him and excites his admiration. 

63. Spirit-life is not interested in the things that 
concern material life — is not interested in the things 
that are not of the spiritual sphere of life. 

64. Trust your subconscious nature — your spirit- 
ual self — with any important mission you may desire 
because your spirit-life can be trusted and can be de- 
pended upon to learn secrets and secure information 
that is beyond the ability of your intellect to other- 
wise learn or secure. 

65. Your spirit-life may be able to fulfil the 
mission assigned to it in a day, or in a week, or in a 
year, — but be patient! — your spirit-life will fulfil the 
mission assigned to it. 

66. The food of the spirit — of the spirit-life — is 
love and sympathy, and trust and goodness, and 
kindness. All the virtues are the food of the spirit. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 17 

67. He knows most of God who is the most highly 
developed spiritually, for spiritual development leads 
to God through nature. 

68. Nature speaks to us of God. Does in fact 
reveal to us God's laws, and work, and beauty. 

69. Nature is the source of all our wisdom. It 
is from nature that all truths are to be learned. 

70. All depends upon our attitude whether we are 
to learn from nature or not. 

71. If we would speak with nature we must ap- 
proach her with expectations, and humbly, as we 
would approach God. 

72. A knowledge of nature and of nature's God 
can not be learned, or acquired from others. It must 
be attained through experience; through a close and 
harmonious communication with nature. And this 
communication with nature can come only through 
spiritual evolution and the gradual blending of our 
life with all the life that is in nature. 

73. Nature never speaks to those who are un- 
worthy of being spoken to — to those who lack suf- 
ficient spiritual development, or to those who ap- 
proach her as though they merely wished to counsel 
with her upon some important question. 

74. We can never get too close to nature; can never 
learn too much of her. 



18 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

75. Out in the silence with nature, goodness 
reigns, virtue is to be found, and every evil either 
takes to its heels or ceases to be. 

76. In the silence with nature or in solitude, we 
have a chance to enjoy our own society, to get ac- 
quainted with our spirit-life, and perchance to learn 
who we are and what we are, and why we are. 

77. That society in which none intrude save the 
silence and the harmony of nature is the best possible 
society, and the most companionable, and lofty, and 
serene, and godlike. 

78. All nature is a temple; a sacred place where 
each man should go alone to worship, or to live, if he 
would be near to God. 

79. Just as there is a harmony that prevails and 
fills all nature, so is there a discord that is to be found 
everywhere in society, or where two or more human 
beings are gathered together. 

80. Nature is able to reach us even in the heart of 
a great city, and to help us to live wisely though we 
are far from her temple and too much a slave of com- 
mercialism to behold all her beauty or understand 
most of her laws. 

81. Nature loves us — calls to us — and will not in 
any case allow any of us to become completely, en- 
tirely lost to her. Nature will not allow any of us 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 19 

to entirely escape from her temple, or out from under 
her care, or parental influence. 

82. Out in the silence with nature man becomes 
conscious of the fact that all nature is filled with har- 
mony. 

83. The harmony that is in nature, which men hear 
only in solitude, or in the silence with nature, thrills 
the highly developed spirit-lives more completely 
than does that highly cultivated music of society. 

84. The music that is in nature is the most lofty 
of all music, and has the most elevating influence of 
all music upon those of us who are able to hear it. 

85. Nature is the only healing force in the world 
and .nature is more able to heal us out in the silence 
than anywhere else. 

86. Nature discloses to us just as much of her 
beauty as we are prepared to appreciate, and no more. 

87. All nature is set to music, is by nature musical, 
and each separate thing in nature has its own melody 
that it prefers to render. 

88. He can not be otherwise than good who spends 
his life in the silence with nature. 

89. It is when we are out in the silence with nature 
that most of our lofty thoughts come; and they come 
unattended and unannounced, and as direct as if 
fired at us from the barrel of a gun. 



20 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

90. He who lives alone with nature fears no 
danger — is afraid of no foe — dares to look life in the 
face. 

91. To those who are out of harmony with the 
purpose of life, nature sometimes appears as a cold, 
heartless, relentless force that is to be feared, and is 
feared. 

92. From nature we can learn all that it is neces- 
sary for us to know in this life. 

93. Nature is the supreme authority on God, and 
therefore on life. 

94. He who fears to be and to live in the soli- 
tude with nature fears not nature but nature's God — 
is not living as wisely nor as well as he should — has 
some sin from which he should depart. 

95. Nature reveals herself to those only who go 
forth to meet her in sympathy and love. 

96. Nature conceals her real beauty, her inner- 
self from all save those who love her, and who go forth 
alone into the silence with expectations, hoping to 
meet her. 

97. If you would know God, first try to become 
in some way worthy of God's acquaintance and then 
go seek God alone in the silence with nature, for it is 
in the silence with nature that God is most often to 
be found. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 21 

98. Not to obey the laws of nature is to be an 
outlaw — is to be forever and eternally on the side of 
the bad — is to live out of harmony with the purpose 
of life. 

99. Nature never conceals her beauty. Her 
beauty is always apparent — always to be seen — but 
some persons are resolved not to see the beauty of 
nature. Some persons turn their eyes away and focus 
them upon the more trivial things and deny to them- 
selves the most beautiful pleasure upon earth. 

100. Nature has a language with which to converse 
with him who has an ear to hear but she never speaks 
to him who comes merely to observe and to study her. 
Nature reserves all her communications and conver- 
sations for those who love her — for those who are in 
sympathy and harmony with her. 

101. Nature is more refined than culture, more 
delicate, more sincere, and more beautiful. It is 
only when nature has been trifled with that it becomes 
coarse and in need of an artificial polish. 

102. All nature is on the march toward perfection. 

103. Nature, in the early stages of her evolution, 
was chiefly concerned with life. Beauty came as an 
after thought. 

104. All nature overflows in some way and in some 
direction. And this overflow in a man's nature re- 
veals the man. 



22 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

105. Nature never harms us. She soothes us, 
quiets our restless nerves and fills us with harmony 
and health. 

106. The more we love nature, the more nature 
reveals herself to us and the more rapidly we evolve 
toward the divine. 

107. Nature is the supreme law and the court of 
last appeal on all questions of right and wrong. 

108. A legal right is no right at all in the court of 
love. Nature does not recognize any such a right, 
neither does God. It is man only, among all of God's 
creation, who is so stupid as to assume that a legal 
right exists, and has precedence over the sacred rights 
of love. 

109. Nature is more serene, and calm, and more 
lofty than man. Man lives in perpetual discord while 
all nature is rilled with harmony and peace. 

110. Nature can sleep, but man must keep awake, 
or if he sleeps, must expect to dream because man's 
restlessness follows him even into slumberland. 

111. Nature has not yet succeeded. Her work is 
still in the experimental stage. 

112. Nature must do away with fear before she 
can proceed much further on her road to perfection. 

113. Nature has not yet succeeded in making a 
man. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 23 

114. The natural is the spiritual. Every effort 
that nature makes is a spiritual effort. 

115. Nature is forever forsaking the old for the 
new — is each day becoming more enlightened and 
intelligent. 

116. The life germ in all nature is spirit, and the 
only difference there is in this germ is in its develop- 
ment — its evolution — its growth. 

117. Nature has a language that requires no vocal 
sounds or words. A language that is more eloquent, 
more melodious, more beautiful, and more persuasive 
than that of any other language in the world. 

118. It is the silence of nature that speaks with 
so much melody — that tells us so much of God — 
that fills our ears with harmony, and our spirit-life 
with rapture. 

119. Next to the silence of nature, beauty is the 
most important thing that God has to disclose to us 

120. It is in the silence with nature that all the 
wisdom of the world is whispered — that all the secrets 
of life are talked of, and nothing of importance to 
man is left undiscussed. 

121. To listen in on the silence of nature is to 
listen in on God and to learn what our Creator is 
about. 



24 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

122. The silence of nature reveals the first faint 
sound of every change that is to be wrought in the 
world and in life. It tells us all that we need to know 
upon every subject on which it is necessary that we 
be informed. 

123. The most delicious fruits that nature yields 
are all spiritual fruits. They are spiritual enlighten- 
ment, increased self-consciousness, wisdom, an in- 
creased sense of the beautiful, a knowledge of life and 
what it is about, and an understanding of God. 

124. In few natures is love and friendship and 
hate constant. In most natures these emotions ebb 
and flow. 

125. Nature is more concerned with the purpose 
of life than she is with mere life. Mere existence is 
of less interest to nature than evolution — than 
development — though existence is necessary in order 
that the evolution may be attained. If nature 
thought that she could produce nothing more perfect 
and more lofty than she has produced, she would be- 
come despondent and discouraged and cease to 
struggle. 

126. Morals have to do with the social relations 
of man, and not with nature or God. Nature and 
God are concerned with the good, and not with the 
moral. 

127. Nature remembers, not what was, but what 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 25 

is. She concerns herself only with the present and 
gives no thought to the past. 

128. Nature has laws that deal out justice in all 
cases of right and wrong, automatically, and never 
do these laws fail to be completely, entirely, accurate- 
ly just. 

129. The reason why we should go to nature in 
its most simple forms to study spirit-life is because 
spirit-life is found there in its most simple form — is 
found there before it has become so highly developed 
and complicated as it is in man. 

130. Nature is inhuman — yes, nature is inhuman 
because she is more than human; is nearer the divine. 

131. Just as man at times prefers to be alone, so 
does nature like to retire into solitude and there be 
undisturbed. 

Man is not always welcome when he disturbs the 
solitude of nature. 

132. Nature is largely feminine in character. 
She has all the feminine characteristics that we know 
best, and love best in woman. 

133. The way to eternal life lays through nature. 
Nature is the gateway that leads to heaven. But 
there are many of these gateways in nature and we 
must pass through all of them before we can arrive at 
that celestial city. 



26 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

134. Some men seek nature to learn of her; other 
and wiser men, seek nature to communicate through 
her with that which is beyond her — the divine. 

135. In nature it is not the flower that is the most 
interesting, nor the bird, nor the tree; but the life — 
the spirit — that is in the flower, and the bird, and the 
tree. 

136. The real beauty that is in nature is not in 
its form, or shape, or color; but in the life that is con- 
cealed by its form, and shape, and color. 

137. All nature is a bible, and the only bible that 
has any vestige of authority in the universe. Yet 
many men who can not interpret the inner meaning 
of this bible, pretend to read this book for us, and to 
interpret its meaning to us. 

138. Those only are qualified to speak of nature 
who are in sympathetic and emotional rapport with 
nature. 

139. No one can be in harmony with nature who 
is out of harmony with God, with the good, with the 
purpose of life. 

140. Nature is more important to us than friends, 
than books, than wealth. Is equal in importance to 
us with our own life. 

141. The man who knows not nature knows not 
God because God is the life-spark that is in nature. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 27 

142. In nature we are able to find God in his most 
simple form ; in the only form in which we are able to 
grasp him and to understand him. 

143. Nearly everything in nature prefers to be 
left alone to live its own life in its own way; prefers 
to be left alone to work out its own destiny. 

144. Nature in her attempt to realize her concep- 
tion of life and beauty begins on a small scale and pro- 
ceeds upward with infinite pains and patience. 

145. We belong to nature and nature to us. There 
is no difference. The material that is in us and in 
nature is the same, and the life that is in both of us 
is the same life. And this life differs only in its evolu- 

ion — in its development. 

146. To get in harmony with nature we must be 
good, must obey all of nature's laws, and in just so 
far as we obey all of nature's laws can we hope to 
understand nature and the spirit-life that is in nature 
and in us — is us. 

147. God is our father, nature our mother, and it 
is upon our mother that our development mostly 
depends. 

148. Nature is our mother, our most valuable 
friend and guide, and like unto the human mother 
who gave us birth, nature should be loved and 
respected and followed. 



28 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

149. Nature has improved by experience. She 
is able to do today what she was not able to do a few 
hundred centuries ago, or when the spirit-life that is 
in man was first intrusted in her care. 

150. Nature is not so proud of man as man 
assumes. She loves him less than she loves her 
latest born — that tiny spark of God that is more in 
need of her parental love and care, and of whom, 
perhaps, she expects more than from man. 

151. Nature is the only authority upon the sub- 
ject of life that is worth considering. 

152. Nature rules by law and not by preaching. 
Believe in nature or not as you please, but if you are 
wise you will keep in harmony with nature's laws, 
whether you believe in nature or not. 

153. Nature offers us everything, but we must be 
patient. A thousand centuries is but a little while 
with nature, and nature does not intend to give us 
everything at once. A little at a time. Things 
given to us gradually through an evolution is nature's 
way. 

154. All that is most deep and true, and most 
profound and beautiful in nature can not be expressed 
in words — can only be suggested. And we can under- 
stand that which is suggested to us by nature in so 
far only as we are in harmonious rapport with nature. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 29 

155. Nature keeps selecting and rejecting through- 
out all the early stages of evolution. She allows noth- 
ing to proceed far in its development that does not 
satisfy her; and the moment that any of her work 
fails to come up to her standard she begins to recon- 
struct it, or to destroy it. 

156. Nature is willing to create a thousand writers 
in order that she may select one that is suitable to be 
her scribe; in order that she may find one that is 
capable of observing her, and detecting her whims, 
and fancies, and purposes, and giving expression to 
these. Nature loves to be reported but not to be 
falsely reported. 

157. Nature alone knows God, has ever felt him, 
or is capable of feeling him, and in just so far as we 
are in perfect harmony with nature are we capable of 
feeling and knowing God. However our knowledge 
of God depends upon our consciousness and our con- 
sciousness depends upon evolution. He who is the 
most highly developed spiritually is the most able to 
understand God, or nature, or life. 

158. That is our nature which we have a tendency 
to do, not that which we do. 

159. Our nature is revealed by everything that 
we do, or say, or think — by our interpretation of 
everything. 

160. Nature is God's masterpiece. And there is 
nothing superior to nature in the universe. 



3 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

161. Nature is the master force; the power that 
is in control of life. And that man is simply foolish 
who does not study nature and strive to get into 
harmony with nature and nature's work and purpose. 

162. Nature is the master workman that is mould- 
ing and shaping our lives, whether we believe in 
nature or not. But nature can do this work much 
more perfectly and successfully if we believe in her 
and are in sympathy with her and her purpose. 

163. Some spirits flee from the silence, or from the 
solitude of nature, because their lives are out of 
harmony with the good, with nature, with God. 
Some spirits flee from the silence of nature because 
they fear to disclose to nature their real attitude 
toward the purpose of life. 

164. To flee from the silence, from the solitude, 
of nature is a confession of guilt — is an admission that 
one is living out of harmony with the law of Spiritual 
Evolution — is an admission that one is retarding and 
delaying one's own spiritual-self on its road to per- 
fection. 

165. The spirit-life that is in nature is the only 
important thing that is in nature and the only thing 
in nature that has life. 

166. Nature is less interested in her physical 
development than she is in her spiritual development. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 31 

She cares less for her form or shape or color than she 
does for her life-spark, her spirit, her inner, or real 
self. 

167. Nature is the source of all enlightenment, of 
all knowledge, of all wisdom, of all goodness and virtue 
and worth. Nature is the source of all things that 
are, can be, or will be. Nature is the means by which 
God is made manifest to us. 

168. Nature is our guiding star, the power that 
leads us under any and all conditions. 

169. Nature is bent upon winning us away from 
the material things of life. She would take us by the 
hand and lead us out into the silence, and show us 
God; the God who sits upon his throne and rules the 
universe through law and order. 

No temple is quite so sacred as this silence into 
which nature would lead us, no prayer is quite so 
serious, or thought so lofty, or feeling so serene and 
peaceful. 

He who has not been led by nature out into the 
silence where God reigns and there been made to feel 
the presence of God has not yet experienced religion 
or been lifted up to the plain of spiritual life. 

170. There is a brain in nature that directs and 
leads, and controls and shows us the way. And this 
brain is of a spiritual nature, like our subconscious 
mind, yet far more powerful and more wise and serene 
and certain. 



32 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

171. Nature has a privacy into which none dare 
intrude until they are admitted by nature herself. 
And nature never admits us into the inner courts of 
her life until we have reached a very high state of 
spiritual evolution — until we are near to being divine. 

172. The external beauty that we see in nature is 
not worth mentioning in comparison to that beauty 
that we shall observe as we advance further into the 
courts of nature. 

173. Nature never discloses herself to some men — 
never admits some men even into the outer court of 
her life, nor discloses to them the first faint blush of 
her beauty, nor the first audible sound of her voice. 

174. There are as many strata of beauty in each 
separate thing in nature as there are strata of life 
in the observer of nature. 

175. That which is not beautiful does not belong 
to God. 

176. We are at the beginning of beauty. Beauty 
will increase, and so will our ability to perceive the 
beautiful, as we and the world evolve toward] per- 
fection. 

177. With evolution comes the beautiful, and the 
ability to perceive the beautiful. 

178. The amount of beauty that we see in any- 
thing depends largely upon us, and this beauty may 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 33 

range anywhere from mere attractiveness, or charm, 
to the sublime. 

179. The lover of the beautiful, the dreamer, the 
poet, the artist is many degrees nearer heaven, and 
farther from earth than the practical man. 

180. Love is a great beautifier, and so is sympathy, 
and faith, and charity, and trust. All things that 
tend to produce harmony between us and the pur- 
pose of life are great beautiners. 

181. That church, that religion that is not utterly, 
entirely, completely, wholly beautiful is not true: is 
in some way false: is false in all ways in which it is 
not utterly, entirely, completely beautiful. 

182. The beautiful is the good, and anything that 
tends to destroy the beautiful is the bad. 

183. A bad disposition is one of the greatest of 
all beauty destroyers. 

184. That which possesses beauty grows more 
and more beautiful the longer, and the more closely 
we observe it, — and all things possess beauty. 

185. Each day a new world of beauty is unrolled 
for those who seek the beautiful. 

186. It is a sin not to seek to behold the beautiful 

187. There is indescribable beauty concealed 
even in the most insignificant creation or production 
of nature. 



34 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

188. All the beauty that we have known and be- 
come accustomed to in life is merely a trivial in com- 
parison to the beauty that will yet be revealed to us, 
a little at a time, as we evolve higher and higher. 

189. All beauty increases for us as rapidly as our 
consciousness increases. Therefore those who are 
the most highly developed spiritually are able to 
behold beauties that as yet do not exist to us. 

190. We are often elevated and enthused and in- 
spired by the beauty that is conveyed to us in a poem 
or a thought, but it seldom occurs to us how much 
more beautiful and vital that beauty must have been 
to him who perceived it, and translated it into 
larguage for us. 

191. We often lament because the creators; the 
translators of the beautiful are so poorly paid, but 
we never dream how much they really get out of 
having conceived and translated into language a 
beautiful poem or thought. 

192. All things are more beautiful and more lofty 
than we picture them even with our spiritual eye. 

193. All beauty of the highest order is spiritual; 
is beauty that is not discernible with the material 
eye: is beauty that is beheld only by the eye of the 
inner life. 

194. All beauty is primarily spiritual, owes its 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 35 

perception to the spirit-life, and is by nature a part 
of that life. 

195. All beauty belongs to the spirit-life. Even 
that beauty that we call "Physical" has that within 
it that the spirit-life values and cherishes and trans- 
forms into spiritual wealth and beauty. 

196. Physical beauty depends upon form and 
shape and color — depends upon physical appearance. 
But spiritual beauty does not depend upon any of 
these because it has no permanent form, or shape, or 
color, — is continually changing, — yet it is the most 
beautiful of all beauty. 

197. The most beautiful thing in the universe is 
life — spirit-life. But the beauty of spirit-life varies 
and increases with its evolution — with its develop- 
ment. 

198. The beauty of everything increases with 
spiritual development, and those creatures that are 
yet in the lower stages of spiritual evolutions are as 
yet unable to appreciate — perhaps even to behold the 
beautiful. 

199. Spirit beauty is the only beauty that will 
bear close inspection. All other beauty is best ob- 
served from a distance. 

200. Often the inner beauty that we see in those 
about us is merely the reflection of our own internal 
beauty. 



36 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

201. In our effort to reach and to possess some 
physical or material beauty that we see, we begin to 
perceive and to possess some spiritual beauty that 
did not exist to us before. 

202. In exchange for some physical or material 
beauty that we desire we are often given some spirit- 
ual beauty that is more beautiful and hallowed and 
divine 

203. When we begin to leave the physical plane 
of living and to enter the spiritual plane, all things 
become more and more beautiful and godlike. 

204. We are always glorified by that beauty — that 
love — that reaches the spiritual plane of life. 

205. The perception of the beautiful is a spiritual 
test. It reveals to those who are in a position to see 
how far they have advanced on their road to perfec- 
tion. 

206. Beauty is a food upon which our spirits 
feed. It is a nourishment that helps us to gain more 
and more spiritual vitality. 

207. The beautiful is the divine. And the more 
completely we possess the beautiful, the nearer we 
are to the divine. 

208. All is beautiful. There is beauty every- 
where and in everything. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 37 

209. We are apt to pay the most homage to that 
beauty which we see the most clearly, and some of 
us are more able to see material beauty, than we are 
spiritual beauty. 

210. Spiritual beauty is not only the most lofty 
of all beauty, but it is also the most difficult for most 
persons to perceive. 

211. Beauty is both like a fire and like a frost. 
Neglect beauty and it freezes you. Approach too 
close to beauty and it burns you. Occupy the right 
relation to beauty and it is your most gracious friend 
and helpmate. 

212. How can those who are too blind to observe 
the beauty of earth expect to behold the beauty of 
h eaven ? 

213. Every beautiful thought that we perceive, 
every lofty sentiment that we feel, tends not only to 
elevate us but to help us in our evolution toward the 
divine. 

214. If our inner — our spirit-life is beautiful, it 
will find a way to express itself that is beautiful for 
beauty never conceals itself. The beautiful is too 
divine, too godlike, to seek concealment. 

215. Everything about us takes on the aspects, 
and the color, and the beauty of that which is within 
us — takes on the aspects and the color of our inner, 
or spiritual self. 



38 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

216. The nearer we approach beauty, the more 
beautiful we become. Our inner — or spirit-life 
absorbs all the beauty that it perceives and makes it 
a part of itself. 

217. Next to the creation and maintenance of 
life, beauty is the most important thing that nature 
has undertaken and the one thing upon which she 
has spent most of her time and talent. 

218. Beauty precedes the transplanting of all life 
from one form to another. It prepares the way for 
all such changes in nature and leads up to them. 

219. All things that come to us direct from nature 
are good and are true, and can no more be bad or false 
than God can be bad, or false. 

220. The moral is a mere trivial in comparison 
with the good. 

221. Being good is merely being sensible. It is 
good sense followed by wise acts. 

222. The good is the staff of life. It is that which 
makes spiritual development possible. 

223. He who is good is in harmony with the pur- 
pose of life. 

224. Only the good understand the value of being 
good. 

225. Desire only the good because from the good 
only will you receive perfect satisfaction. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 39 

226. Goodness is a necessity and all must become 
good in the end. 

227. Goodness is necessary to spiritual evolution, 
to development, to life. 

228. He who is good is strong, while he who is 
not good lacks strength — is not highly developed 
spiritually — has not advanced far on his road to per- 
fection. 

129. The good and the beautiful are one. For 
that which is good is beautiful, while that which has 
not yet attained goodness has not yet developed 
sufficiently to be beautiful. 

230. Goodness is an innocence that has knowl- 
edge — is an innocence that is no longer ignorant. 
Goodness is an innocence that has become enlight- 
ened — that has developed into something finer 
and more pure and God-like than it was before. 

231. We can not approach close to the good with- 
out approaching close to nature and to God. 

232. There is a vast difference between the good 
and the moral. The one is the fullfilling of the pur- 
pose of life: the other the obeying of the rules relat- 
ing to conduct that are laid down by society. 

233. Everything that tends to help nature in the 
accomplishment of her purpose, whatever that pur- 
pose may be, is good; and everything that tends to 



40 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

retard, to delay nature in the accomplishment of her 
purpose, whatever that purpose may be, is bad. All 
other conceptions of the good and the bad, of the 
right and the wrong, are false conceptions — are con- 
ceptions that are based upon a misunderstanding of 
the purpose of life. 

234. It requires strength to be good, and most 
persons who are not good, are so because they lack 
strength — spiritual strength. 

235. Some of us have to struggle to be good. 
Others of us would have to struggle to keep from being 
good. 

236. There are persons in this world who are good 
because they can not help it, and other persons who 
are bad for precisely the same reason. 

237. Real angels and real devils can not possibly 
exist in human form, or in the material world. 

238. All who are in this world are struggling 
toward the good, and those that are yet too far from 
the good may seem to be utterly, entirely, completely 
bad. 

239. Our courage helps to decide how good and 
how bad we can be. It prescribes the limits between 
which we must live our life. 

240. Goodness, like happiness, is contagious — is 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 41 

catching. Be good and others will become like you 
— good. 

241. Nothing is too good to be believed, or ex- 
pected, or to be realized. 

242. He is good who lives as wisely as he knows 
how to live. 

243. We must be good to be able to live in soli- 
tude — to be able to live in the silence with nature. 
And he who lives in the silence with nature will each 
day become better than he was the day before. 

244. The only investment that is safe, that is 
sure to pay a dividend, is goodness: is sympathy: is 
love. 

245. The moment that we begin to perceive the 
good, we begin to appreciate it and to possess it. 

246. The more closely we approach the good, the 
more we are attracted by it, and the less we are 
attracted by the bad. 

247. Goodness is something that does not greatly 
concern some persons because these persons have not 
yet reached a point in their development where good- 
ness becomes of vital importance to their future 
evolution. 

248. The minute that the good becomes of vital 
importance to the spiritual evolution of a person, that 



42 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

minute that person becomes profoundly interested in 
the good, and, instinctively, begins to seek out the 
pathway that leads to the good — that leads to a 
harmonious relation with the purpose of life. 

249. To be good is to be in harmony with the laws 
of nature, is to be in harmony with the conditions 
that tend to develop spirit-life the most rapidly, and 
to bring to that life the most vitality. 

250. The difference between the good and the bad 
is a spiritual, not a moral, difference — is a difference in 
their spiritual development, in their consciousness, in 
their nearness to the light — to the divine. 

251. He who knows not the good, but must follow 
the moral guide-posts set up by society, is not wise, 
or highly spiritually developed, nor even learned, 
though he may be a graduate of all the schools. 

252. That which is good is in harmony with life, 
and life's development and purpose; and that which 
is bad is that which is out of harmony with life, and 
is therefore that which tends to retard life's develop- 
ment and to destroy its purpose. 

253. There are many different heights and de- 
grees of goodness, and we must reach the most lofty 
of all these heights before we can have attained our 
complete development. 

254. A man must in some way be good to be an 
idealist, and the better he is the more of an idealist 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 43 

he will be and the more lofty will be his conception 
of the good. 

255. When one has once become good — has tasted 
the divine essence of goodness — though he may again 
become bad, he will return to the good, and no power 
on earth or in hell can do more than retard or delay his 
return for a few brief years or lives. 

256. We dislike those who are too good because 
they are too far above us. We wish everybody to 
live on our plane of life, or a little beneath us. 

257. It is wise to be moderate in most things but 
not in virtue and goodness. There is no extreme to 
wise living — to living in harmony with nature and 
with the purpose of life. 

258. Every spirit-life tries to be as good as we 
believe it to be, and if our belief in that life is suf- 
ficiently strong, we may help that life to more rapidly 
attain its development. 

259. Just as we must be more than moral to be 
really good, so must we be more than good to be 
divine. 

260. In goodness there is beauty, poetry, music, 
rhythm, harmony. 

261. It is a sure sign of goodness not to be able 
to think that our enemies are bad — to perceive that 
they also are good. 



44 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

262. The laws underlying goodness and operating 
through the good can be reduced to an exact science, 
because these laws are among the fixed laws of nature 
and never vary a hair's breadth in their operation. 

263. Everything works together for good. Even 
our evils tend to show us the way to goodness. 

264. All things that are good are the fruit of 
spiritual development, and are closely related to each 
other. 

265. No good that we can conceive is beyond our 
ability to attain if we will be patient and strive 
faithfully to attain that good; but when we have 
attained that good we will find another good, that 
before we could not see, or conceive of, just a little 
ahead of us and we will wish to attain that good also, 
and so we will keep on struggling upward toward the 
good until we finally attain our spiritual development 
and no longer need to be fettered by a material body 
or form. 

266. All things tend toward goodness. Nothing 
in the universe is bad — entirely, completely bad. 

267. Do not look for goodness upon the surface 
of life. Goodness is more apt to be found beneath 
the surface — within the life. 

268. Those who are good through fear or through 
policy are not good because goodness is an attitude — 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 45 

a harmonious relation to law — and can not spring 
from an ignoble or unworthy motive. 

269. Men may be deceived by the seeming good- 
ness that springs from an ignoble attitude, but not 
the law, or nature, or God. 

270. All things that are good tend upward — tend 
to help us in our spiritual development — and all 
things that are bad tend downward — tend to retard, 
to delay us in our spiritual evolution. 

271. God is on the other side of nature from us. 

272. The road to God leads through nature. It 
is a road that only a few have observed closely, and 
scarcely a hundred have thought to follow for any 
distance, yet it is the road that leads to God. 

273. If we could penetrate through nature we 
would come into the presence of God. 

274. If nature does not speak to you of God, and 
tell you all you need to know, then the time has not 
yet come when it is necessary that you should know 
God. 

275. Go out into the silence with nature and 
listen. Perhaps God has something that he wishes 
to say to you. 

276. You must seek God in solitude, or in the 
silence with nature if you would find him, or converse 
with him, or learn to understand him. 



46 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

277. God is the God of nature, though each sep- 
arate thing in nature may have its own guiding star 
or spirit that leads it the way that God wishes it 
to go. 

278 Not even God is superior to nature because 
God is nature — is nature in its perfection — is nature 
in that perfection toward which all life is evolving. 

279. Those who condemn God in nature do so 
through ignorance and lack of enlightenment and 
development. They not only do not know God, but 
they are not sufficiently high in the scale of spirit- 
ual evolution to know or to understand him. 

280. The nearness of God to us depends upon our 
spiritual development, and this development depends 
largely upon our attitude toward life. 

281. Nothing is that is not of God. Therefore 
all that is, is of value to us in our attempt to form an 
accurate conception of God. 

282. Fundamentally God is nature, and all that 
has sprung from nature. 

283. Harmony is the touchstone by which truth 
can be ascertained. 

284. That thought or idea that is in harmony with 
the purpose of life is the truth. 

285. The road that leads to contentment and 
peace, and happiness and enlightenment, and wisdom 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 47 

and spiritual development is harmony — is to get into 
harmony with nature, with the purpose of life. 

286. He who is in harmony with the purpose of 
life is good; has faith; is developing spiritually ; is 
not selfish, or controled by greed, or hate, or fear, or 
distrust. 

287. There must be harmony between the spirit- 
life and nature before there can be harmony of thought 
or of perception. 

288. All real friendships must spring from spirit- 
ual harmony. 

289. Harmony, rhythm, melody, music prevails 
through everything that is good, that is helpful to the 
evolution of spirit-life. 

290. It is more important that we keep in har- 
mony with all spirit-life than that we get in harmony 
with the world — than that we get in harmony with 
material or physical life. 

291. All things are tuned to music, to harmony, 
to law. And when this harmony is broken, the law 
is broken, and discord and disaster result. 

292. Harmony is not the result of belief, or faith, 
or religious attitude. It is the result of law. 

293. Get in harmony with the purpose of life, 
with nature, and all is well. 



48 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

294. Just as harmony prevails throughout all 
nature, so does discord prevail wherever unnatural 
men are to be found. 

295. All clubs and libraries and churches and 
places where men gather are filled with discord — 
with discordant thought waves. Thought waves 
from different minds cross and recross each other and 
destroy the harmony that should prevail — that does 
prevail — out in the silence with nature, or in the 
solitude of one's home or study. 

296. All unhappiness is the result of being out 
of harmony with the purpose of life. All discontent 
is the result of a discord between nature and us — is 
the result of a discord that may be caused by anything 
that retards spiritual evolution and defeats the pur- 
pose of life or nature. 

297. We seldom live the life we think we live. 

298. Everything in life costs us more than we 
think. 

299. There are persons whom we can not know in 
life, who are made known to us in death. 

300. Most human lives are filled with nothing but 
emptiness. They sail into the harbor of death with 
nothing on board worth mentioning. 

301. There is in the life of the most contemptible 
human being that which would arouse our sympathy 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 49 

and our compassion if we but fully understood. 

302. If you would know the kind of life you live, 
learn to note the kind of thoughts you think, and the 
kind of subjects on which you love most to converse. 

303. Only those are prepared to live who are pre- 
pared to die. 

304. Life is not measured by years, but by living; 
by the amount of good it has brought us ; the distance 
on the road to spiritual perfection it has carried us; 
and the nearness to God it has left us. 

305. Life is spirit. And the development of this 
spirit-life accounts for all the different species of 
life, and for the development of each of these species. 

306. There is poetry, and rhythm, and music in 
everything that is in harmony with the purpose of 
life. 

307. The most important question of life is: 
"How best to live. How to live to get the most 
spiritual development out of life." 

308. Most of us do not get as much out of life as 
we should because we do not know how to live. 

309. To possess a life that is full of beauty and 
poetry and music and truth is to possess great spirit- 
ual wealth and development. 

310. To live is to evolve. 



50 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

311. Most of the things of life are so trivial that 
we can well put them off for a few centuries and devote 
our time to living. We need not, in fact, do these 
trivial things at all if we do not wish. They do not 
count in the scheme of things. They do not make us 
more wise, nor better, nor help us in our spiritual 
development. They are merely a few pebbles in our 
pathway, and need not impede our progress unless 
we stop to pick them up and to carry them about with 
us. 

312. It is our attitude toward the purpose of life, 
and not our knowledge or faith in that purpose, that 
is important — that is necessary to our spiritual 
development. It does not matter what we believe, 
but it is all important that we believe, and that we 
get into harmony with our belief. Spiritual develop- 
ment requires of us, first : that we get in harmony with 
our belief. And second: that we are passive and 
allow our belief to lead us toward the light. 

313. All life is spirit. And all spirit-life has the 
power to generate certain material activities that 
produce a kind of life that is independent of spirit- 
life so long as it is in contact with spirit-life as a gen- 
erating force. But remove the spirit-life from con- 
tact with this material life, and the material life 
ceases to live, or to have life. 

314. The life element, or spirit that is in man does 
not differ in any essential from the life element or 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 51 

apirit that is in a tree, or a flower, or a bird, or other 
snimal, or plant, or mineral. Does not differ in any 
essential. Does not differ except in its evolution, 
or development. 

315. All life is but one life — spirit-life — differ- 
ently developed. 

316. Each spirit-life is but a spark of God, which 
through evolution will become like unto the God who 
gave it birth. 

317. If you wish to search for the spirit-life of one 
who has departed this life before having completed 
his evolution in human form, do not search in the 
spirit-world, but among the new born babes. 

318. All things of real spiritual value to life, and 
in life, are free to all who possess the ability to grasp 
them, and to understand them, and appreciate them. 
And the ability to grasp, and to understand, and 
appreciate spiritual things depends upon spiritual 
development — upon evolution. And spiritual evolu- 
tion depends largely upon our attitude toward the 
purpose of life; depends upon whether we are in 
harmony with nature and her laws, or not. 

319. In life we fight nearly all the time on the 
defence, and blindly. We do not understand how 
to live wisely, but we live wisely without under- 
standing. In life we believe one thing and do another, 



52 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

and know not that that which we do is more wise 
than that which we believe. 

320. Those who live profoundly, live serenely and 
calmly, and peacefully. It is those who live on the 
surface of life who suffer most from storms and tem-> 
pests — whose lives are so full of discontent and un- 
happiness. 

321. To fully understand one's spirit-life is to 
understand the spirit-life of the universe, and to know 
what life is about. 

322. No one spark of life is of more importance 
than any other spark of life except in the progress it 
has made in its evolution. 

323. All — everything — depends upon our attitude 
toward life. We are all magnets that attract to us 
that which our inner, or spirit-life needs or desires. 

324. If your life is purely a physical one, or a 
mental one, do not imagine that you are near to 
heaven, or that you possess any exact knowledge of 
life, or of nature, or of God. 

325. All things in life come to us in fragments — 
in peices — and out of these fragments and pieces a 
successful life or failure must be built. 

326. In life we often meet again some of those 
whom we have known in former lives, and renew 
again the relation that formerly existed between us. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 53 

327. Many of our hates and fears and friendships 
and loves in this life are based upon acts and deeds 
and conditions that existed in some of our former 
lives. 

328. We are the sum total, not of one life but of 
all the lives that we have lived since God planted our 
spark of life in the first crude form of nature. 

329. Enumberable lives have been lived, and 
countless periods of time have been spent in the 
evolution of the life that is in each of us. 

330. - Death is as natural as sleep, or birth, and 
no more to be feared. 

331. Death is an adventure into the unkown. It 
is a journey that none need fear. Especially not 
those whose bodies are worn out, or diseased. 

332. To fear death is not to trust life — is to be 
lacking in understanding, or faith, or both. 

333. Death is not sad, but the parting is sad. 

334. Death may bring us and the departed nearer 
to each other, or may keep us farther apart. All 
depends upon whether our love for each other is of 
the spirit-life or not. 

335. Death makes us young again. It is but the 
doorway that leads to a new life. And though we 
fail in our spiritual evolution and must return to 



54 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

earth again in human form, we gain by death another 
youth and youthful body in which to try again to 
attain our spiritual development. 

336. Under the law of Spiritual Evolution, death 
is of no consequence because death does not destroy 
life; does not impair, or delay life in its evolution; 
has no power to harm life whatever. 

337. Death is never sudden. The inner, or spirit- 
life is always conscious of the approach of death, and 
is ready to depart. 

338. Though death is never sudden or a surprise 
to the dying, yet it is so free from sensation, or feeling, 
or jar that the departed are not conscious of the 
passing over. 

339. Life blends into death, and death into life 
again without our being conscious of the change. 
We simply become conscious that we are alive, and 
if we have any consciousness of our former life, it is 
a vague and visionary one, as something apart from 
ourselves. 

340. The dead do not possess any great knowledge 
of what is in the beyond. All things are revealed 
to them, as to us, by a slow unfolding — an evolution. 

341. We live each of our lives in a compartment 
shut off from our past and our future by thick cur- 
tains, through which we can not see except imper- 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 55 

fectly, and only spiritual evolution has the power to 
lift these curtains or to remove them before us as we 
advance or retreat. 

342. We can not always believe that which we 
wish to believe. 

343. We seek to convince ourselves of the truth 
of that which we wish to believe with every means 
within our power. 

344. Our belief depends upon our enlightenment — 
upon our development — upon the point at which we 
have arrived in our spiritual evolution. 

345. Many persons wish to believe that which, 
as yet, they are unable to believe and therefore could 
not possibly live. 

346. Do not strive to believe that which for the 
moment your inner, or spirit-life can not accept as 
the truth because such a truth is not true to you and 
may never become true. 

Do not strive to believe that true which your inner- 
life rejects as untrue and as unnecessary to your 
spiritual evolution. 

347. It does not matter what we believe. Spirit- 
ual evolution does not depend upon belief. Besides 
our belief will change with our evolution. 

348. Our spiritual self is a better judge of what to 
believe than are our spiritual teachers. And never 



56 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

does our spiritual self believe in that which is no 
longer of use to it — in that which it has outgrown. 

349. That religion is the most true that contains 
the most wisdom — that is the most in harmony with 
the laws of nature. 

350. We live our religion, though not often the 
religion that we believe, or think we believe. 

351. Our religious belief is merely our explanation, 
or interpretation of the purpose of life; while our 
spiritual development is the point in life at which 
we have arrived. 

352. When any religious belief becomes lofty 
enough it ceases to have sect and united itself with 
all other religious beliefs that are lofty. 

353. That religion that answers to all your present 
spiritual requirements is your religion, and is true 
to you, though it may not answer to the spiritual 
requirements of another living soul, and therefore 
can not be true to them. 

354. Our religion is the sum total of all that we 
believe concerning life. 

355. All religions are good. All religions help us 
in our spiritual evolution. All religions accomplish 
their purpose. 

356. All religions fade and blend into each other. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 57 

357. All religions are, in all essentials, in harmony 
with the law of Spiritual Evolution, though this law 
as such may not be known to all of them. 

358. No religion can be true that excludes all 
other religions. 

359. That religion is the most lofty that is the 
most in harmony with all life. 

360. Our religious instinct seeks the light — the 
truth — and is never satisfied until it has obtained that 
for which it seeks. 

361. Our religious instinct does not depend upon 
reason or knowledge for enlightenment, but its en- 
lightenment is re-enforced and strengthened by these. 

362. All religious beliefs are good to those who 
believe them; are in fact the most lofty religious 
thought of which they are, for the moment, capable 
of understanding. 

363. A religion that fails to keep pace with us 
in our spiritual growth must be left behind — can 
not continue to be our religion. 

364. It would be almost impossible for us to ac- 
curately estimate what it has cost us to manufacture 
the world's present ideas of Christianity. 

365. If Christianity is to survive it must get in 
harmony with nature, with enlightenment, with 
knowledge, with reason, with God. 



58 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

366. Christianity can be saved only by Christians 
— can be saved only by Christians who have sense 
enough to bring their religion into harmony with 
nature. 

367. The Christian religion shows a marked spirit- 
ual development over the religion of the Jews, or 
the religion of Moses and the prophets. It occupies 
a more lofty height and is the product of a more 
highly developed consciousness. 

368. Most persons confuse the religion of Christ 
and the religion of the Jews, and try to mix these 
two religions, and to quote the one in support of the 
other, but this can not be successfully done because 
these two religions do not entirely agree. 

369. Christ, being the latest arrival from the 
kingdom of the gods, brought with him many new 
ideas — but think not that with Christ all is said — 
that God has nothing more to say to his people. 

370. Christ brought into the world a lofty religion. 
A religion more lofty than most persons are able to 
understand, or to appreciate, or follow. But as soon 
as man has learned to understand, and to appreciate, 
and to follow the religion of Christ, he will be given 
another, and a still more lofty religion, and one 
nearer the truth. 

371. The final religion will be the religion of 
nature, and will come with a more lofty spiritual 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 59 

development, and a more accurate knowledge of 
natural law. 

372. Faith is instinctive. It is of the spirit-life. 

373. All things are based upon faith that are, can 
be, or will be. Even reason can find no other founda- 
tion on which to rear its structure. 

374. Faith has the power to save us from every- 
thing — even from ourselves. 

375. Hope is important, but it is not so important 
as faith. 

376. Faith is essential to the possession of any- 
thing. We always lose that in which we have lost 
faith. 

377. Faith is a means of knowing that which 
could not otherwise be known. It is a means of 
comprehending that which we are not sufficiently 
enlightened to otherwise comprehend. 

378. Any faith is a good faith provided that it is 
sincere and lofty, for the spirit-life will evolve as 
rapidly under one faith as another. 

379. All faiths lead to the same goal; to the same 
heaven; to the same spiritual attainment or develop- 
ment. 

380. It is safe to assume that he who holds the 
most lofty faith is himself more lofty, and more highly 



60 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

any right to force upon us that which our soul 
developed spiritually than others. 

381. The Christian faith is too far above the 
spiritual development of most persons. It is too 
lofty for most persons to grasp, and to understand, 
and to make their own. 

382. A faith that is too far above us is not our 
faith, but a faith that may be ours when we have 
evolved higher. 

383. We must be faithful to the faith we have if 
we would have more faith; and we must be true to 
the truth we possess if we wish to possess other and 
more lofty truths. 

384. Faith is necessary to spiritual evolution 
because faith tends to create a harmonious attitude 
between life and us, and to bring us into harmony 
with the law of Spiritual Evolution. 

385. Faith precedes us in our spiritual evolution, 
and shows us the way. Belief follows after our 
evolution, and helps us to understand more or less 
perfectly why a thing is true, or good. 

386. Faith is an essential to the evolution of 
spirit-life. Belief is a non-essential. 

387. As long as we have faith we evolve irrespec- 
tively of what we believe, or whether we believe or 
not. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 61 

388. Faith requires of us nothing that is unreason- 
able, that is unjust, that is untrue, that is unnatural, 
or in any way out of harmony with nature. Faith 
requires of us only hope and trust. A belief in the 
good, and a desire to get in harmony with the purpose 
of life whatever that purpose may be. 

389. Faith demands of us no exact knowledge, 
no theology whatever, though these may be of aid 
to faith if they are in harmony with truth. 

390. No truth can be true that is out of harmony 
with other truths — that is a discord amid the harmo- 
nies of truth. And that truth must be true which 
is in harmony with all the other truths of which we 
know. 

391. Spiritual evolution must be true because 
spiritual evolution is in harmony with all the other 
religious truths of which we can be certain — because 
spiritual evolution is in harmony with all the essential 
truths of all religions. 

392. That truth which is the most lofty must be 
the most true, whether it be heathen or Christian. 
And the law of Spiritual Evolution is not only the most 
lofty truth in the universe, but it is also the most 
reasonable and the most just. 

393. That which is not true to us is not true, and 
no religious teacher or other person, or persons, has 



62 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

rejects because it has not yet come into the dominion 
of our spiritual world, or has come and passed out 
again. 

394. The truth is more powerful than any religion, 
or belief, or creed, or theory. And if a truth is true 
no amount of force or opposition will be able to 
stifle it or destroy it. 

395. There are as many truths in the world as 
there are individuals, and if a truth answers to our 
spiritual requirements, that truth is our truth. 

396. A spiritual truth is no truth at all to those 
who have not yet developed sufficiently to grasp it, 
or to understand it, and know that it is the truth. 

397. We may be able to communicate spiritually 
with some whom our thoughts never reach. We 
may be able to communicate spiritually with some 
who are utterly incapable of perceiving our truths, 
or understanding our development. 

398. The spirit-life is capable of communicating 
in a spiritual way with less highly developed spirit- 
lives ; but the intellect is utterly incapable of convey- 
ing a spiritual truth to a spirit that is not sufficiently 
developed to grasp that truth. 

399. The bible is the work of man. Nature is the 
work of God. 

400. Nature has written the only bible that 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 63 

appeals to the enlightened man. And as man becomes 
more and more enlightened he will insist more and 
more upon a religion that is in harmony with nature — 
that is nature. 

401. Nature tells us more than any bible tells us, 
than any prophet tell us, or religious teacher, or book 
reveals to us. If you would know life and what it 
is all about go to nature. 

402. No bible is necessary. Nature teaches us 
all we need to know, or can know about God, the 
Creator of the Universe. 

403. The bible is an explanation. It is the work 
of some of the best minds and most enlightened spirits 
of the age in which it was written. The bible is a 
priceless book, but it is not the word of God. It is 
merely an attempt on the part of man to explain God, 
and to teach us how best to live. 

404. The best explanation of God comes from 
God's work — from nature. 

405. The bible is worth quoting upon any sub- 
ject, provided that it is quoted as an opinion and not 
as an authority. 

406. At any point where the teachings of the 
bible conflict with the laws of nature, at that point 
the teachings of the bible cease to be of value to the 
human race because the laws of nature are the su- 
preme authority on all subjects pertaining to God. 



64 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

407. Man needs no bible nor religious guide to 
show him the way to God. All that he needs is 
nature, for in nature all is revealed. 

408. Science is in position to help us much in 
arriving at a more correct knowledge of God; and 
that scientist who is the nearest to God in his evolution 
is the best scientist, and the most able to understand, 
and to explain God. 

409. It would be easy by a new version of the 
Christian bible to bring that book into harmony with 
all that science finds true, with all that culture finds 
true, with all that education and learning finds true, 
with all truth. It would be easy by a new version 
of the Christian bible to bring that book into harmo- 
ny with all the truths that spiritual evolution and 
enlightenment have revealed to man since the dawn 
of history, or since the bible was written. It would 
be easy by a new version of the Christian bible to 
bring that book into harmony with nature and with 
God. 

410. Faith is as necessary to science as it is to 
religion. And when faith is lost, all is lost. 

411. Science comes nearer the truth concerning 
God than any religion comes — than Moses came — 
than Buddah came — than Brahma came — than Christ 
came. 

412. Science comes near the truth concerning 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 65 

God, but science has not gone far enough. It has 
merely plowed the surface of nature, and discovered 
a few mysterious manifestations of that power, force, 
or creative energy within, and knows not that it has 
discovered God. 

413. We are enlightened by love, by sympathy, 
by admiration, by all things that are in harmony with 
the laws of nature. 

414. That man is the most enlightened who has 
advanced farther than others on the road to spirit- 
ual perfection. 

415. Enlightenment is a spiritual, not a mental, 
quality. We acquire knowledge through stud}r and 
experience, and enlightenment through spiritual 
evolution or development. 

416. Just as our enlightenment and our self- 
consciousness increases as we evolve, or as we advance 
upward toward the good, so do these decrease if by 
chance we travel the other way. 

417. Only the most enlightened know how little 
they know, and how profound is the ignorance of 
those who know less than they know. 

418. No man is sufficiently enlightened to ac- 
curately judge the importance of the most insignificant 
act, or the most vaguely perceived impression. 

419. Fear stands like a ghost in the pathway of 



66 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

enlightenment, and prevents many from becoming 
enlightened. 

420. Our enlightenment increases in so far only 
as we follow it, or are guided by it. The moment 
that we cease to follow our enlightenment, and begin 
to do that which we know is not wise, our enlighten- 
ment and our wisdom begin to recede from us and to 
leave us in spiritual darkness. 

421. The most enlightened of us are yet so stupid 
that a truth must be presented to us in many different 
forms and shapes and colors before we can fully grasp 
it, and digest it, and make it our own. 

422. We are all moral in some ways, and immoral 
in others. 

423. To be moral is to play the game of life ac- 
cording to the rules laid down by society, but to be 
moral has nothing to do with being good. 

424. It is wise to be moral, but it is much more 
wise to be good. 

425. Those who are moral obey the laws of man 
and those who are good obey the laws of God, or of 
nature. 

426. The moral code is neither lofty enough, nor 
perfect enough, nor good enough to be our guide. 

427. Morality is the policy of man. That which 
will serve man's interest best is the moral. There- 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 67 

fore morality bears no true relation to the good, and 
may even be, and sometimes is, the bad. 

428. Our moral standard changes with our morals, 
and both are continually changing. 

429. Morality was once in harmony with nature's 
laws, but that was before man thought to improve 
upon the work of nature. 

430. The moral is too low and mean and disgust- 
ing. It reminds us too much of man, and too little 
of God. It is not lofty enough, nor good enough, nor 
divine enough to be our guiding star, the standard 
toward which we aspire. 

431. The moral can not lift its soul high enough 
to touch the skirts of the good. 

432. To sin is to get out of harmony with the pur- 
pose of life, or of nature. It is therefore discord. It 
is to strike the wrong key, or cord, or note. 

433. Sin retards spiritual evolution by producing 
discord between the good, or nature, and us. And 
sin produces this discord between nature and us by 
breaking the current of spiritual attraction that 
exists between us and all other spirit-life. And this 
discord that sin produces, creates in us a restlessness, 
and discontent, and unhappiness that reveals to us 
the fact that discord exists between nature, or the 
good, and us. 



68 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

434. Sin dulls our perception. It prevents us 
from seeing our way clearly. It forces us to grope 
our way about like one in the dark. 

435. Sin has not the power to destroy us. It can 
only impede, retard and delay us on our evolutionary 
journey. Sin can only hold us back, and force us to 
spend more lives than are necessary in material bodies. 

436. Sin occupies but a narrow space in life. It 
can not go beyond the point where self -consciousness 
is born, nor can it mount to that height of spiritual 
enlightenment to which our evolution soon carries us. 

437. Sin is eventually a corrective force. It 
eventually pushes us toward the good by forcibly 
revealing to us the fact that we are out of harmony 
with the good, or with nature, or with the purpose 
of life. 

438. The sins that we have committed seem much 
less heinous to us than the sins that have been com- 
mitted by others. 

439. Those hate sin most who still have some- 
thing to fear from sin. 

440. The farther we get from sin the less con- 
scious we are of the existence of sin. And if we 
journey far enough from sin, sin will cease to exist 
to us. 

441. Every evil, every falsehood, carries within 
it the germ of self-destruction. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 69 

442. Every evil is a discord — is a note that is out 
of harmony with nature and with life. 

443. Evil suggests evil to those who are evil. 

444. The minute we cease to be evil, evil ceases 
to exist to us. 

445. He fears evil who is evil. 

446. Every evil act that we commit tends to delay 
not only us, but all humanity, all nature, on its 
march toward perfection. 

447 . Out in the silence with nature there is harmony 
and it is in this harmony of silence, rather than in the 
discord of sounds, that great men are born and 
developed and become great. 

448. Every great or highly developed spirit-life 
is the product of solitude, or of the silence of nature. 

449. He who fears silence, fears God — is afraid 
to meet his spirit-self, or the spirit lives of others. 

450. Only when we are in the silence with nature 
are we in position to be guided or instructed or helped 
by the dead — by those spirit-lives that are above and 
beyond us. 

451. Just as some men flee from the silence or 
from solitude, in order to get away from life, and to 
keep their minds on things outside themselves, so 
other men seek solitude or the silence, in order to 
learn of life and of themselves and of God. 



70 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

452. Every great thought, or idea, or conception 
that we conceive comes to us from solitude, or out 
of the silence of nature. 

453. The silence of nature is healthful and heal- 
ing. It tends to destroy discord and to produce 
harmony between life and us. 

454. Go out into the silence with nature and listen 
to what nature has to say if you wou lealdrn how 
trivial are the ways of men or if you would become 
enlightened, or learned, or wise. 

455. Silence tells us much which no words or 
sounds can tell us. It reveals to us beauty and dis- 
closes to us wisdom that is beyond the power of 
human language to express. 

456. Solitude is necessary to spiritual develop- 
ment — is one of the mysterious laws of our inner- 
growth. 

457. A man to live in solitude must be good, must 
be in harmony with nature and at peace with his own 
soul. 

458. To be able to live in the silence with nature, 
in solitude, is one of the most great of all virtues 
because solitude makes the highest possible demands 
upon the spiritual man. 

459. Most of our virtues are virtues that require 
of us no conscious effort, are virtues that have ceased 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 71 

to be virtues and have become part of our nature. 

460. We are instructed by our virtues more than 
we are by our vices. The latter dulls our perception 
while the former helps us to see. 

461. That virtue does not exist to us which is too 
far above our spiritual development for us to perceive. 

462. We owe all our happiness to our virtues, and 
were we sufficiently wise we could distinguish to which 
particular virtue we owe each of our happy moments. 

463. The philosophy of doing that which is right 
is so simple that many of us are unable to grasp it. 

464. We suffer just as much for having violated 
principles that we believe to be right as we would if 
they were right. 

465. The satisfaction of being in the right pays 
a higher dividend than the selfishness of having what 
we desire, or doing what we wish. 

466. He who does wrong is lacking in perception, 
or in knowledge, or in courage. The man who does 
wrong is not an enlightened man, nor a wise man, 
nor a man that is high in the scale of spiritual evolu- 
tion. 

467 The value of prayer is in the attitude pro- 
duced. Prayer unconsciously tends to bring us into 
harmony with the law of Spiritual Evolution, and 
through that law help us in our spiritual development. 



72 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

468. Most prayers are sermons in which ministers 
preach to God in the presence of men. 

469. Some prayers are but the cry of a soul in 
distress. And some prayers are prayers of submission, 
of surrender — are prayers uttered by souls that have 
been in rebellion against the law of Spiritual Evolu- 
tion, and who now humbly submit to that law. 

470. "Thy will be done," is one of the most wise 
of all prayers. 

471. The only prayer that is really answered is 
our attitude toward life. 

472. We occasionally ask our God for that which 
Satan would be glad to grant us. 

473. A public prayer should be a series of lofty 
suggestions preceded by a brief silence. A public 
prayer should be scientific and psychological. It 
should suggest the good, and through suggestion bring 
the hearers into harmony with the purpose of life. 
To do this successfully each suggestion should be 
preceded by a brief silence. 

474. To be just is not enough. We should also 
be good. 

475. The just man is rewarded for his justness, 
but the higher rewards are reserved for those who 
are also good. 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 73 

476. If justice were given to those who are sel- 
fish and greedy and who do wrong, they would re- 
ceive that which they give — selfishness and greed and 
wrong. 

477. It is not the just who most often cry out for 
justice, but the unjust — those whose sense of justice 
is imperfectly developed. 

478. All men believe in justice, but some men 
need to be enlightened as to what justice is in reality. 

479. Justice appeals to every one, even to the 
unjust — to those who do not wish for justice save 
for themselves. 

480. To be entirely just we must know — must 
understand — must be enlightened. 

481. In the affairs of men justice is usually an 
accident. It sometimes happens that those who are 
to decide between the right and the wrong find that 
their interest will be best served on the side of the 
right, and so justice is done. 

482. The desire to be just tends to elevate us, 
and the desire to be unjust tends to lower, to degrade 
us. 

483. It costs us nothing to be just, but to be un- 
just costs us some part of our self-esteem, our self- 
respect. He who commits an unjust act thinks less 
of himself than he did before that act was committed. 



74 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

484. Those who do not see goodness and beauty 
and purpose in every living creature, person and 
thing do not see — are blind. 

485. Our ability to see a thing depends largely 
upon our attitude toward it. If we care for it — 
have love for it, or sympathy, or feeling — we are 
more able to see it. 

486. It is with our spiritual eye that we are able 
to see the most, and to comprehend the most. 

487. We need not despair because of that which 
we can not see — because of that which is yet hidden 
from us — for as we develop spiritually our ability to 
see, and to hear, and to know, and to understand will 
increase. To those who have reached a certain stage 
in their spiritual development, all is revealed. 

488. Observe repeatedly that which you would 
enjoy because nothing is seen in its entirety at first, 
or until it has been long and repeatedly observed. 

489. Everything reveals itself to us slowly and 
gradually — a little at a time. 

490. Everything that we observe becomes more 
and more beautiful the longer and more closely we 
observe it. 

491. If you would learn to observe the beauty 
of God, first begin by observing the beauty of nature, 
and keep on observing the beauty of nature until it 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 75 

gradually expands before you and leads you into the 
presence of God. 

492. To be one's self is to be original. 

493. We are what we see, and know, and under- 
stand. Our enlightenment is an accurate standard 
by which to guage our development. 

494. We are more wise than we know, and more 
foolish than we think. 

495. He lives the most wisely who lives the most 
in harmony with the purpose of life — who is less con- 
cerned in material things than others. 

496. Wisdom is the fruit of spiritual development 
and consists in a knowledge of how best to live in 
order to evolve the most rapidly toward the divine. 

497. We can not by any flight of our imagination 
fully realize the grandeur of our destiny. 

498. Each spirit-life must work out its own 
destiny — must obtain its own spiritual development — 
and though it may be helped or hindered by other 
spirits, none can succeed for it or secure for it that 
which it may have failed to obtain for itself. 

499. The future does not concern us, but the 
present is of vital importance to us because out of 
the present our future is evolved. 

500. Our future is illuminated for us for brief 



76 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

periods of time much as the earth is illuminated 
by a flash of lightning. 

501. A seer is one who sees more than others in a 
spiritual sense because he has attained a higher point 
in his spiritual evolution than others, and is there- 
fore in position to see more. 

502. The law of Spiritual Evolution makes seers 
and prophets just as it makes men who are enlightened 
spiritually and who understand while other men lack 
enlightenment and are blind. 

503. A materialist is one who does not see — who 
is blind — and therefore one who knows not life or the 
purpose of life. 

504. Materialism is ignorance raised to its high- 
est degree. It is an ignorance so profound that none 
of the secrets of life can penetrate to it. 

505. Heaven is a state, and is reached through 
spiritual evolution only. 

506. There is no sudden change from earth to 
heaven. We reach heaven by a gradual develop- 
ment, or unfolding, that is so gradual that we are seldom 
conscious of it, and wake to find ourselves in a different 
sphere from that in which we were. 

507. Perhaps there is not a spirit-life in human 
form that is sufficiently developed to enter heaven 
from this life, but there must be some spirits in 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 7 7 

human form for whom heaven is near — is not many 
ives away. 

508. To possess too much of earth is to possess 
too little of heaven. 

509. Earth and heaven gradually blend into each 
other as our spiritual development increases and while 
some of us are still firmly upon earth, others of us are 
in heaven, or in the border land between earth and 
heaven. 

510. The road to heaven is a road that few men 
understand — in all the centuries past have under- 
stood — and yet it is a road that is so simple and so 
plainly discernible that all ought to be able to under- 
stand it and to follow it without many slips. 

The road to heaven is simply spiritual evolution 
obtained through following the good that we know, 
and aspiring to reach that more lofty good that we 
have reasons for believing is just ahead. 

The road to heaven is simply a spiritual growth, 
a slow unfolding, a development obtained by living 
in harmony with a law that is perfectly discernible 
to all who will to behold it and to follow it. 

511. If heaven is no more beautiful than we con- 
ceive it to be, then it is not as beautiful as earth, for 
earth contains more beauty than we are able to see, 
or to conceive, or to understand. 

512. Of what use is heaven to those who have not 



78 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

yet reached a state in their spiritual development 
where they are in a position to enjoy earth? 

513. Heaven must need grow more beautiful the 
nearer we approach it. And earth must need become 
more beautiful to most of us before we can afford to 
part with it. 

514. Heaven is attained through spiritual de- 
velopment at the point where a physical body is no 
longer necessary, but the spirit-life does not pause 
there. It continues its evolution through enumber- 
able heavens, each one of which is superior to the last 
or the one beneath it. 

515. Heaven is not a reward that can be secured 
through believing. It is an attainment that can be 
attained only through spiritual development. 

516. The way to heaven lies through aspiration, 
through desire, through a longing to be something 
more lofty than we are. The way to heaven lies 
through an unfolding, a growth, a development, an 
evolution. 

517. He has not traveled who has not gone beyond 
the few trivial, petty, conventional, and common- 
place ideas of man and beheld that more lofty sphere 
where man's ideas are broad and elevating and beaut- 
iful and chaste and clean and sincere and godlike. 

518. The reason why most men are satisfied with 
the trivial and commonplace things of life is because 



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 79 

they have never known, or experienced any of the 
important things of life. 

519. The petty and the trivial things of life are 
the important things of life to those who have never 
ascended to more lofty heights than the commonplace 
— to those who have never experienced what it is to 
live on a spiritual plane of life. 

520. The world that we know is a mere trivial in 
comparison to the worlds within this world that we 
know, for within this world that we know there are 
millions of other worlds and each of these other worlds 
is more mysterious and strange and astonishing than 
the one of which we know. And if we could follow 
these inner worlds far enough, we would come at 
last to the one world that is more mysterious and 
astonishing than all the others — the spiritual world. 

521. In all the affairs of men the trivial and un- 
important has, with few exceptions, precedence over 
the vital and more important things of life. 

522. The importance of anything does not strike 
us at once. It is only after we have had time to re- 
flect that we begin to grasp the importance of the 
most significant fact or event. 

523. Nothing is of importance that does not re- 
veal to us something that is new, something that we 
have never before seen, that does not disclose to us 



80 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 

some secret of life, and therefore enlighten us and 
help us to live more wisely than before. 

524. The most important things that happen to 
us are those of which we are silent, and which we 
could not convey to another even if we tried to speak 
of them. 

525. We never discover anything of- spiritual im- 
portance without first having made spiritual prep- 
arations for that discovery. 

526. All things that are, are necessary. Nothing 
is that is not of some importance in the scheme of 
things. 



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